Jailbird
by Jen Hunt
Summary: What happens after the Season 4 finale? Emma ends up trapped in a mental institution, and her family searches for her while she tries to hold the Darkness at bay. Can they all put an end to the Dark Swan before it truly begins?
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, what's going on?" came Regina's worried voice from across the street. Robin followed closely on her heels.

Hook's eyes scanned the dark horizon. "The Dark One. It's no longer tethered to the Crocodile."

"What?!" Regina exclaimed. "Where the hell is it?"

Emma's green eyes widened with fright as she slowly spun in a circle. "It hasn't gone anywhere. The Darkness… it's surrounding us."

Everyone looked around as if the simple act of searching would force the Darkness to appear.

A sudden gasp escaped Regina's lips. Black tendrils violently encircled her, releasing blue light like lightning.

"Regina!" Robin screamed.

"I-" was all a terrified Emma could manage, glancing down at her hands, then back up. Barely visible through the wild black tendrils, Regina looked like she was in excruciating pain. But it also looked like she'd already accepted her fate.

"What's it doing?" Robin shouted at Emma over the deafening noise.

Sudden realization dawned on Emma; it was obvious on her face. A grave expression took over her features. She spoke up.

"What Darkness does. It's snuffing out the light."

Emma realized that not only would the Darkness kill Regina, but Regina would die a Villain. The Darkness was sucking out all of the goodness she'd worked so hard to achieve.

"Well, I'm not gonna let it," Robin declared, running fearlessly at the Darkness terrorizing his love.

"I-" Emma tried to stop him, but Robin was already attacking the Darkness. It threw him back as easily as a toddler throws a toy they have grown bored with.

"That's not gonna work on this thing!" Emma screamed at Robin. Her blond curls blew wildly about her panicked face. "The Apprentice told me we have to do what the Sorcerer did! We have to tether it to a person to contain it!"

There was only the slightest of hesitations, a millisecond, before Emma strode, dagger in hand, over to where the Darkness held Regina.

"Emma!" Mary Margaret cried out. David held her back, hugging her close.

Seeing her advance and understanding her intentions, Regina looked horrified. "No!" came her strained voice. It was very hard for her to speak; the darkness was suffocating. Projecting her voice over the noise the Darkness made, sounding like the roars of a thousand lions, was a million more times more difficult. But she _had_ to say this. "There has to be another way!" she insisted.

Emma looked at her, almost apologetically, tears welling up in her eyes. "There isn't." She paused to prepare herself. "You've worked too hard to have your happiness destroyed."

Emma reached out at the dark tendrils, but was interrupted by David. "No!" he exclaimed, in a last-ditch effort. Emma could tell he knew he couldn't stop her. This is what she _needed_ to do. She turned to her parents. Her parents, the same age as her. Her parents, who she'd only known a few short years. Her parents, who'd loved her and betrayed her and loved her again. Intense determination ruled her face. "You figured out how to take the darkness out of me once." Her voice broke. "You need to do it again. As heroes."

"Emma! Emma, please! No; don't do this." Hook closed the gap between the two of them. Emma stared into his eyes, pain evident in hers.

"I love you," she said. The words she hadn't been able to say before. The last loose end she needed to tie up; it was tied now. She forced herself to tear away from Hook. Like lightning, she turned and thrust the dagger into the Darkness.

"No!" protested Hook, too late.

The Darkness left Regina, it gave her up without a second thought. She ran back to Robin and watched, terrified, with the others, as the Darkness claimed Emma. It was a more than unsettling sight; it was disturbing. The Darkness circled Emma with even more purpose than with Regina, the dark tendrils starting by wrapping around her arm, then progressing until it encompassed her whole body.

Regina knew it was very painful, but the only signs of pain Emma was willing to show were a few quiet grunts. It was just like Emma to hide her feelings from others.

After what felt like hours, the Darkness went out in a burst of blue light, taking Emma with it. The dagger clattered to the ground.

On it were two devastating words: Emma Swan.


	2. Chapter 2: Operation Macaw

Henry sat in a chair at Mary Margaret's kitchen table, swinging his legs back and forth. He absently ran his fingers over his mother's name engraved into the dagger in his hands. "I don't get why she had to leave. Wouldn't it be easier to take the Darkness out of her if she were actually _here?_ " Henry exclaimed frustratedly.

Mary Margaret set a cup of hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream and cinnamon, in front of him and sat in the chair opposite. She sighed as he pushed the cup away. "I know. But Emma doesn't always think before she acts. It's what makes Emma… Emma."

Henry just stared at the floor. He concentrated on the organic patterns of the hardwood. Anything was better than thinking about why his mother had abandoned him _again._

Mary Margaret seemed to sense Henry's thoughts. "Hey." She leaned forward in her chair, the worn seat creaking as she did so, and laid a gentle hand on his arm. "Do you remember why Emma gave you up the first time?"

"To give me my best chance," Henry muttered.

Mary Margaret lightly squeezed his arm. "Yeah. So you know Emma would _never_ do something if she didn't think it was the best choice for you, right?" She closed her eyes and drew in a slow breath. "I know Emma doesn't really ever say how she feels, but you are the _most_ important thing in her life. She dropped everything, _everything_ to come here and be with you in Storybrooke. So don't ever think for a second that she left you, okay?"

"But she _did._ She just _left,_ without an explanation, or a goodbye, or a second thought."

Mary Margaret looked pained. "Henry-"

"No!" he interrupted her. "I hate her!" His voice broke. "I hate her for always putting others before herself, and I hate her for becoming the Dark One, and I hate her for leaving me. Aaargh!" He flung the dagger at the wall. The blade, surprisingly, cut easily through the brick and stuck in the wall. Neither Henry nor Mary Margaret got up to retrieve the dagger.

Mary Margaret's hand retreated from Henry's arm. She leaned back in her chair and shook her head. "I miss her too, Henry. And sometimes I get mad at her for leaving us. But, then, I remember I can't hate someone for doing what they thought was the right thing." She laughed. When she spoke again, her feelings were evident in her voice. "After what David and I put her through, we deserve this. And _Emma_ deserves somebody looking for her, after so many years of being unwanted and tossed away."

"But we don't even know where to look for her. _Nobody_ in Storybrooke knows anything about the outside world. Hardly anyone's even ever _left_ Storybrooke. Plus, Emma's job was to _find_ people." Henry thumped his fist on the table to emphasize his point. "That means she knows things _we_ don't about where to go when you don't want to be found."

Mary Margaret blew a puff of air out through her lips. "I know." Suddenly, she sat up a little straighter and smiled. "But we have the most powerful weapon on our side, yeah?" She squeezed Henry's leg. "We have hope. And as long as we still have hope, we still have a chance."

Henry lifted his eyes just long enough to meet his grandmother's, a loving expression on her face. He glanced back down quickly. "We'd never find her. Finding my mom in the middle of six billion people would be like finding a needle in a haystack." He kicked the foot of the table. "Except finding a needle in a haystack would be easier, because the hay and the needle are all _together._ "

Mary Margaret refused to accept Henry's negativity. She smiled and thoughtfully tapped her chin. "Hmm… So, what should we call our new mission of finding Emma? Operation Ferret? Operation Alpaca?"

Henry wasn't confident in the mission itself, but he didn't want to miss out on naming it. "Operation Macaw."

"Why Macaw?"

Henry shrugged. "I don't know. It sounded good, and it throws people off track. I guess."

Mary Margaret beamed at him. "Operation Macaw it is, then."


	3. Chapter 3: To Jump or Not to Jump

Green eyes scanned the view from the top of the Empire State Building. Emma had forgotten how overwhelmingly enormous everything in any city anywhere was. Back in Storybrooke, everything was so quaint and small that you didn't feel so insignificant. New York City, however, with the hustle and bustle of eight million people and buildings that touched the sky, was a whole different story. The city could easily make you feel like a nothing, a tiny speck of dust on the table of the Earth that wasn't even worth being bothered for the duster.

Emma sighed. She had come to the massive building in the middle of a Tuesday, so there were only a few people milling about. She glanced at a man and woman pointing things out to their three-year-old son; cars that looked like ants, buildings, the whole view in general. She didn't want the kid to see what she was about to do, so she made her way over to another side of the building. The only people over there were adults, thankfully.

As the new Dark One, Emma knew she couldn't technically die without the dagger. She was in a land without magic, though, so did that negate her immortality? If she took a knife to her throat, would her lack of magic allow her to die, or would she heal instantly? It was all so confusing. Emma didn't know which rules of magic applied to the real world and which didn't. It all seemed to be a crapshoot to her.

Emma nervously ran her hands along the wires designed to make people _not_ jump off the Empire State Building. She didn't know why she'd chosen to come _here,_ of all places. The building was over a thousand feet tall, for God's sake! Couldn't she have picked something where the fall wouldn't take so _long?_ But she needed to test the limits of the Dark One, and _fast._ This was the first place she'd thought of. She ran on impulse, not logic.

She took a deep breath. _If you do die,_ she thought to herself, _at least the Darkness will be gone forever. If you really can die here, then the Darkness has no power in this world; you would live if it did. So either way it'll be okay. Either it'll never be able to harm anyone again, or you'll get a chance to live_ without _the darkest thing ever inside of you._

Being that she was about to jump off a one-thousand foot building, her thoughts weren't very reassuring.

The wires and bars blocking the building from the sky looked hard but not impossible to climb. Emma betted she could do it. She hoisted herself onto the ledge and placed an unsteady foot on the crisscrossing wires. It didn't take long to reach the bottom of the curved bars, but when she did, she wasn't sure what to do. She glanced back. No one was watching her. Emma held on to the curved bars with one hand and reached for the top of them with the other. The pointed edge was so sharp that it sliced right through her palm. "Shit," she said, pulling her hand back in time to watch a drop of blood fall to the ground below her.

Deciding to ignore the pain, Emma reached back up and grabbed the edge of the pole again, this time by the side instead of the front. She jumped up and stretched for the adjacent pole, but she missed. Her feet slipped off the wires, leaving her hanging on by one hand. The ground was only feet below her, but she was _terrified._ How the hell did she expect herself to jump off of a _building_ if the thought of falling no more than twelve feet frightened her to her very _core?_

Emma knew she had to do this _now,_ or she was never going be able to gather the strength to get up here again. With the last ounce of her strength, she seized the bar she had been aiming for, brought her feet onto the bottom of the curved poles, and climbed awkwardly until her legs were high enough to swing over the curved edges of the bars. She was now hanging upside down, blond hair in her face, her legs dangling over the edge. If she wasn't so high up in the air and about to _jump,_ Emma would have laughed at her odd position.

She struggled to sit up and breathed a sigh of relief as the blood rushed away from her brain and the intense headache disappeared. She hadn't expected it to be so _hard_ to get up here. Emma hadn't expected it to be like a child's rock wall, but she was surprised when she got the feeling like she had just climbed Everest.

She was so proud of her efforts to get up there that she almost didn't want to let go. But she did.

She slid no more than an inch or two down the bars before she felt a tug on her red leather jacket.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short! It is supposed to be transitional. I will try to update later today, but I cannot make any promises.**

Emma was falling, but she was falling the wrong way. Instead of falling _off_ of the Empire State Building, she was falling back _onto_ it. That had to be a new one.

On the bright side, she was no longer afraid of falling those twelve feet anymore.

A searing pain pierced her body as she landed flat on the concrete ground. When her head hit the unforgiving cement floor, a slow darkness overtook her vision, her mind, her limbs. She couldn't move, speak, hear, feel, or smell. For Emma, it was positively horrifying.

The Dark One in her, however, was comforted by the blackness.


	5. Chapter 5: You Have to Forgive Me

Henry dropped his book bag onto the bed. "New York City hotels are small," he commented.

Regina surveyed the tiny armoire that was supposed to serve as their closet, swinging the wooden doors back and forth. She let go of the armoire and crossed her arms close to her chest. "And expensive. This shoebox is costing me two-hundred dollars a night."

"Mom. You have money falling out of your ears. Can we please just focus on finding Emma?"

Mary Margaret spoke up from where she laid on one of the two queen beds. "Henry's right. Money is not our issue. Emma is."

Regina cocked an eyebrow at Snow. "Remind me again why I allowed you to come?"

Mary Margaret pushed herself up and sat crisscross applesauce on the white comforter. "Emma's my daughter. You don't really believe I would let my daughter go? _Again?_ We all know what happened the first time."

Regina flinched visibly. Snow noticed her reaction. "Regina," she said. Regina looked physically hurt. "I-I'm sorry. It's just the stress."

"No." Regina drew in a deep breath. "My apology to you is long overdue. I took away the opportunity for you and David to raise Emma. You lost twenty-eight years with her because of me. Having Henry, I understand now how painful that must've been. I'm so sorry."

The silence between them was almost deafening. Regina ran her fingers along the desk, feeling the smoothness of the polish against her fingertips. She was all out in the open now _How did the saying go, again?_ All her cards were on the table? Yes; she had laid all her cards on the table. It was Snow's move now.

Mary Margaret squeezed her eyes shut. A tear slipped out from her eye and slid slowly down her cheek. It was a long time before she said anything. "Regina. You sentenced an entire _realm_ to an _eternity_ of unhappiness because Imade a mistake. You tore apart families, stole memories, ripped away identities, just because I tried to _help_ you, Regina. I thought I was _helping_ you; I didn't know what was going to happen. But you _did_ ; you _knew_ what this curse would do, and you did it anyway. And I can't forgive you for that."

Regina looked at Snow. Henry could tell by her expression that she was deeply pained. He watched her lower herself into the desk chair. "Okay," was all she said. "That's fair." With that, she dropped her head into her hands.

"Grandma," protested Henry, "why can't you forgive Mom? She saved us all from Isaac's storybook."

Regina waved one hand at Henry. "Snow has the right to refuse to forgive me. She wasn't the one who ruined my happiness, but _I_ was the one who ruined _hers._ " The hand went back to her face. "I don't deserve anyone's forgiveness, really."

Henry didn't like to see two of the most important people in his life so distressed and upset. He unzipped his bag and pulled out a box. "Travel scrabble? Mom? Grandma?"

Mary Margaret threw an uncertain glance in Regina's direction. Her head was still resting in her palms. "Sure, Henry, I'll play," Mary Margaret said.

The two of them played absent-mindedly. Some of the words weren't even legitimate words, but neither bothered to correct the other. The game was only a distraction as long as they didn't have to think about it that much. "Eight points for 'donkey,'" muttered Henry. Snow placed an "O" underneath a letter T. "Two points for 'to.'" She sighed. "Henry, I know you want me to forgive your mom, but I can't, okay? You'll understand when you have children someday. You won't want to miss a minute with them."

"No. No! Everyone keeps telling me I'll understand when I'm _older._ That's not true; I understand _now._ I know you missed out on raising Emma, and I know that hurt. But the truth is she would've been in even more danger back in the Enchanted Forest. Mom wouldn't've given up until she had Emma and ruined your happy ending, anyway. Look what happened with the curse. Maybe Mom didn't _want_ it to backfire on her, but it _did._ And she's _good_ now; she's a hero. She's trying to apologize to you. There's nothing she can do to fix what she did, but she's doing her best to make amends. And I think you should let her."

Regina still hadn't moved from her seat in the chair. She hadn't even stirred. "It's more complicated than that, Henry," Mary Margaret said with a gentle shake of her head.

"No, it's _not,_ " Henry declared forcefully. "You can't move forward until you forgive the things that happened in the past. We're never going to find Emma if all you're letting Mom do is feel guilty for something she regrets doing more than anything."

Snow stood up and closed the gap between her and Regina. "More than anything? Really?"

Regina's voice was muffled and shaky when she spoke. "I had to tear out my own father's heart for the curse. He was the last person who truly loved me then, and I ripped his heart out because I thought it would make me happy."

Snow gasped. Her hand flew to her chest. "Oh. Oh, _Regina._ Really?"

Regina nodded faintly, head still in hands. "The thing is, it _did_ make me feel better. For a while, anyway. When Henry brought Emma back with him, though, I started to think. I started to regret enacting the curse. But it was too late, and most people still hate me for it."

Regina felt two warm, soft arms wrap around her shoulders. She stood up, turned around, and accepted the hug Mary Margaret was offering her. Regina began to sob, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly the girl she was hugging wasn't Mary Margaret anymore; it was ten-year-old Snow. Selfless, innocent Snow White. Why had she had to ruin that?

Henry hopped up from the bed and walked over to his two family members. They each extended an arm and welcomed him into their embrace.

Henry woke up to the soft snores of his grandmother. He shifted his head against the pillow so he could read the clock. 2:13 am. He rolled over to look at his mom next, but the space next to him was empty.

Thinking she'd maybe just gone to the bathroom, Henry waited in patient silence for the next few minutes. His mother never returned to the bed, though, and now that he was paying attention, there was no light coming from under the bathroom door.

Henry shot up in bed. He threw the covers off of himself and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He sprinted over to Mary Margaret and violently shook her awake. "Grandma. Grandma!"

Snows rhythmic snores stopped abruptly. "What is it, Henry?" she propped herself up on one arm and rubbed her eyes with the other. "It's two a.m. What could possibly be so important?"

"Mom's gone. I don't know where she went, and I'm worried about her. I may not know much about this city, but I know it's not a safe place to be in the middle of the night."

Henry could make out enough in the dark to watch Snow's eyes widen to the size of baseballs.


	6. Chapter 6: She's Smart

Mary Margaret scrambled to get a light on in the room. "What, really? Where do you think she went?"

Henry shrugged. "I don't know. She's kind of unpredictable."

Snow's eyes lit up. "We can call her. She'd answer her phone, right?"

Henry shrugged again. "I guess."

Snow dragged her enormous suitcase out from under the bed and began rifling through the clothes. She had thrown the flip phone Emma that had given her for Christmas somewhere in with her mess of blouses, skirts, toiletries, and cardigans. Just in case.

Henry watched from beside the bed as shirts flew this way, pants that way. He even had to duck once to avoid getting smacked in the face by an airborne shoe. Finally, Snow pulled out a tiny black metal device. She flipped it open and the screen flared to life. "Henry, help me call your mother," she said simply.

Henry knelt beside her and pointed to an icon on the screen. "You hit that to go to your contacts," he informed her.

"How do I click it?"

"Use the arrows down here until the button with the face on it lights up, then click the middle button."

Snow did as instructed. "Okay, I see David, Emma, and Hook. How do I get to Regina's name?"

"Scroll down with the arrows again until you see it," replied Henry. "Aren't you getting the hang of this by now?"

"Not really," replied Snow through gritted teeth as she clicked through her contacts. She pressed the middle button once she had landed on Regina's name, then pressed it again to call her.

 _Riiiiiiing._

 _Riiiiiiing._

 _Riiiiiiing._

 _Riiiiin-_

"Hello?" came Regina's stiff voice through the speakerphone. Both Snow and Henry fell backwards against the foot of the bed in relief.

"Regina, where are you? You don't have your magic here; it's not safe to be out this late."

"For your information," Regina replied, "I'm looking for your daughter. After what I did to you and David, I feel I owe it to you."

"Okay, Regina, but you don't owe it to us at _two thirty_ in the morning! Even _Emma_ is probably sleeping right now."

"Yes," countered Regina, "which would mean that she's not _moving._ If you get lost, hug a tree, right?"

Snow shook her head in disbelief. "Regina, we can search for her in the morning. Henry is worried about you, and so am I."

"Don't worry so much. I'm perfectly safe."

"You could get mugged, Regina! And how are you planning on finding Emma, anyway? This city is _huge,_ and it's _crowded,_ and for God's sake, it's _two_ in the morning!"

"I'm using the 'Find My iPhone' app. Emma showed it to me a while back. It's a good thing Emma likes her gadgets upscale, or this would be a whole lot harder." There was a long pause. "Look, Mary Margaret, you may not ever forgive me for what I did, but I still owe this to you. Plus, I consider us somewhat as friends. Is this not what a friend would do for a friend?"

Mary Margaret slammed her hand against the carpeted flooring. "No! This is crazy, Regina! I forgive you! I forgive you, okay? If I don't forgive you, if I do what you did and hold a grudge until I get revenge, then we could end up in a worse situation than we're in now. So, Regina, I forgive you. Now _please_ come back here."

"No." With that, Regina hung up the phone on Snow.

Regina followed the tracking signal around the city. She followed it tirelessly for hours, street after street, block after block. At least they'd made the right decision in coming to New York; Emma was definitely here.

She stopped for a moment to examine her surroundings. Regina was no stranger to scary things, but the skyscrapers looming over her in the dark of the night were making her lose her cool. Sure, she'd been in castles. Sure, they were big. But castles were _never_ this tall. Regina felt that one of the buildings could come toppling down on her at any moment.

"Relax," Regina said to herself. "You used to be the Evil Queen. You can handle a walk in the dark." She brushed nonexistent dust off of her blazer and continued on. Regina found it odd that this world had their own version of a tracking spell, but being that she had no magic here, she was certainly grateful for that fact.

She glanced down at her own iPhone; she was finally getting close to Emma. "Miss Swan," she chuckled to herself, "I'm assuming the only part of hide-and-seek you excelled at as a child was to 'seek.' Because it certainly was _not_ hard to _find_ your hiding spot."

A few more feet until Emma, her phone told her. Regina smiled triumphantly; she knew Henry would be so happy to have his other mother back, and he'd have _her_ to thank for it. Plus, maybe she could finally start truly patching things up with Snow and Charming.

Regina came across an alley. Her phone was telling her that Emma was hidden in that alley, between the two brick buildings.

"Emma?" she called softly. "Emma?"

There was no reply. She stepped forward and heard something crunch beneath her feet. She backed and bent down to investigate whatever she'd just ruined.

"Damn it, Swan!" Regina exclaimed upon seeing the object. She should have known better. Regina stomped her foot on the ground. She screamed out of anger and out of frustration. She slammed her foot against the ground again, and screamed again. A feeling of pure hopelessness seized her, something she hadn't felt since her first true love had been viciously killed. She kicked the object she'd stepped on as hard as possible.

Emma's broken phone went flying and collided with the wall at the end of the alley.

Emma was cunning, and Regina was starting to hate that about her.


	7. Chapter 7: The Truth

**A/N: Thanks for all the support so far! I know 6 reviews isn't many, but it makes me happy that you guys take the time to voice your opinions** **. Anyway, I noticed I had some punctuation/grammatical errors in the previous two chapters, so I was extra careful with this one! Enjoy!**

Emma's eyes flew open. She was in a room with pale blue walls, in a bed with pale yellow blankets, in a pale pink hospital gown, and surrounded by half a dozen beeping machines. The whole scene seemed so mellow, save for a few pieces of the puzzle: one, her head was wrapped tightly in a bandage and felt like someone had beaten it with a hammer, two, her neck was secured in place by a splint so she could neither turn it this way, nor that way (which was really annoying for her; Emma liked to have her freedom in every way possible), and three, her hands were bound to the bed by leather cuffs. Emma couldn't decide which part she found more annoying, the pain or the restraint, so she flipped a coin in her head and decided to focus on the pain rather than the fact that her hospital bed had been transformed into her jail cell.

Emma forced her eyes to travel around the room. She knew from experience that it was important to always have a handle on her surroundings. Across from her bed, a flat screen TV hung on the wall. To the right of her was a heart monitor, an oxygen pump (which made her realize she was wearing those weird tube things that fed you a constant flow of freezing oxygen), and, a little further away, a door. On the left side of the room there wasn't much, just a window that indicated it was nighttime and a couch.

What Emma almost failed to notice was the person sleeping on the couch.

Surprise stole over Emma's features. "Lily?!" she whispered. The figure on the couch stirred a little. "Lily!" Emma said, a little louder this time. The figure sat up and pushed her hair back from her face, yawning. Now that Emma could clearly see the girl's features, she knew it was definitely Lily.

Emma's heart sped up in her chest. She didn't know what would happen next; her and Lily had always had a rocky and unpredictable friendship. If you could call it that.

"What are you doing here?" Emma hissed at the brunette in the corner.

Lily stretched her arms to the sky and rolled her shoulders in a circle. "I'm saving your ass, that's what. Now calm down. If a nurse comes in here and sees your heart running a marathon, she's gonna give you more sedatives."

Emma squinted at her. "Are you the person who pulled me off the bars on the Empire State Building? How did you even know I would be there?"

"I followed you, and yes, I am. And speaking of that." Lily paused to walk over and punch Emma in the arm.

"Ow!" Emma winced.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Em? You jump off the Empire state building; you go splat." Lily smacked her hands together, alligator-style, to punctuate her sentence. "There's no coming back from that. You should know that." She leaned in close to Emma until they were practically nose-to-nose. "Listen to me, Emma. You made the right choice in coming here. Do you know why?"

Emma shook her head no.

Lily continued on with her speech. "You have both the purest and darkest of magics in you. Do you know what Good and Evil do? They fight until one wins out. I've been researching this for years. Emma, your powers are weaker here, but even this world could never suppress all that magic. Back in Storybrooke, had you stayed, you would have had very little time to find a solution. The fight between Good and Evil inside of you would have drained every last drop of you until you were nothing but a pile of bones. Here, however, both are much weaker. It'll take longer. But you _will_ start noticing symptoms eventually." Lily started ticking things off on her fingers. "Fatigue. Nausea. Weakness. Voices in your head. Urges to do things you wouldn't normally do. Em, they're gonna tell you you're sick. You have to ignore them."

Emma was astonished. Never in her life had she heard Lily speak so many words at once. She hadn't even known that Lily _knew_ all this stuff.

"So… I still have magic in this world?" was all Emma dared to venture.

Lily looked extremely frustrated at the question. "Yes! But not enough to save you from the Empire State Building, idiot." She threw her hands up in the air. "I'm done. I've told you all I know; I'm leaving." Lily grabbed her jacket off the couch and headed for the door.

"Wait!" called Emma, struggling to free herself of the leather bracelets binding her to the bed. "Can you at least help me get out of these cuffs?"

Lily turned around. A tiny smile appeared at the corners of her lips, and she shook her head slowly. "Oh." She laughed and backed up until she was at the door. "Oh, no. Trust me, those things are soon to become your very best friends."

Emma let her head fall back against the pillow. "Not coming back from that jump was kind of the point," she muttered quietly.


	8. Chapter 8: In Case I Don't See Ya

**A/N: I don't know when the next time I'll be able to upload another chapter will be (maybe today, maybe not), so don't read this one too fast! ;)**

Regina reentered the hotel at precisely 6:07 a.m. Henry and Snow were curled up on the bed together, Snow's arm draped around Henry's shoulder. They were both wide-awake and waiting for her.

Snow immediately noticed Regina's troubled expression and looked sympathetic. "You didn't find her," said Snow understandingly.

"No, I didn't." Regina's voice was agitated and rough. "I found her phone, though," she added, pulling the mangled mess of glass and metal out of her pocket and tossing it on the bed. Snow reached for it instantly. "Careful," Regina warned her, "the glass fragments get stuck in your hand. See?" Regina extended her own hand; it was slightly cut up and bleeding.

Snow ignored her and reached for the device anyway. She put in the passcode, ignoring the bits of glass that stuck to her thumb, and immediately went to Emma's photo album.

"You can't work your own phone, but you can work Emma's?" Henry interrupted from over her shoulder.

Snow smiled at the many pictures of her daughter on the phone. "Sometimes, Henry, you just know what to do."

Henry actually had a feeling he knew what to do, too. He grabbed the phone from his grandmother and scrolled all the way to the most recent media addition. "Mom, Grandma, look at this."

Regina sat on the side of Henry that Snow wasn't already covering. "What is it?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure," Henry replied uncertainly, "but I think we should watch it."

"Okay," said Snow. "No harm, right?"

"Right," Henry agreed. He pressed the play button on the screen.

Emma's face was difficult to make out through the phone, and the sound was a little fuzzy, but it was definitely Emma, and it was nice to see her and hear her again, in any form. The video began playing.

"Hey." Emma smiled awkwardly at her camera and shoved her hand into her coat pocket. "I guess you're looking for me, and you've found my phone by now, or you wouldn't be watching this." She shook her head awkwardly. "I don't know. Or maybe you're not looking for me, and I made this video for nothing. That's okay, too."

"No, it's not," Mary Margaret said sadly.

"Shh," Regina hushed her.

Emma continued on in the video. "I just want you guys to know that I'm safe. Well, for now at least. I can't guarantee my safety a whole lot longer, and I'm trying to figure this whole thing out without hurting any of you in the process." Emma looked like she was remembering something. "Oh, and Regina: check out 5th avenue. Lots of great shops with your kind of clothes."

Emma paused. For a long while she just stared at the ground. "I know I don't say it a whole lot, but I love you all. Even you, Regina. Over the years I've come to think of you as a somewhat of a friend. And Henry, you've been the best son I could possibly ask for.

"I guess I should be wrapping this up, then." Emma smiled vaguely at the camera. "So. Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night."

The video ended then.

"That's it?!" exclaimed Snow, furious. "That's all she left us? It's not even helpful!"

"No, wait!" Henry held up his hand, signaling to his grandmother to calm down. "I think she left us an accidental hint. I think I know where she was going."


	9. Chapter 9: Stuck at Home

**A/N: I know some of you are wondering where David is, so I hope this chapter helps clear things up.** **Also, in this story I ship CaptainSwan; Hook just hasn't come up yet. He will, I promise, my fellow CaptainSwan shippers! Gotta make a grand entrance, right? ;)**

 **David's POV**

David was just setting a sleeping baby Neal in his crib when the phone rang. The baby began to wail again.

David cursed quietly under his breath and picked up the phone, groaning. He'd never known babies were so irritable and _noisy._ Still, despite the hardships of having a child, he felt bad that he and Snow had been forced to let someone else raise Emma. "Hello?" he said, hand on hip.

"Hey," came Mary Margaret's sweet voice.

David was surprised. He hadn't expected his wife to call so soon or at all, really; he had expected the trio to be too busy searching for his missing daughter to call him. "Hey!" he answered, the shock in his voice only thinly veiled. "What's going on? Have you found Emma yet?"

"No, but Henry thinks he knows where she is," Snow replied.

"That's right!" David heard Henry say in the background. "I wish you were here, Grandpa. Emma's your daughter, too, I mean. Plus, this would probably go a lot faster with you."

David scratched at an itch on his nose. "I wish I was there, too, bud. But I have to take care of Neal."

"I know, but couldn't you bring him here with you?"

"He's too little for that, Henry. And you know _someone_ has to be in charge back here in Storybrooke."

"Okay," Henry conceded. "That's true."

"Put David on speakerphone so we can all hear him," Regina said in the background. David heard a soft beep.

"David? You still there? Can you hear me?" Snow asked.

"Yeah, you're good. So what's Henry thinking?"

"Hold on, I'll hand him the phone." There was a rustling sound on the line, then Henry spoke up.

"So earlier this morning, Mom found Emma's phone with the 'Find My iPhone' app. She brought it back to the hotel with her, and it was all cracked and broken, but it still worked."

"The damage to Emma's phone may have been mainly my fault," Regina admitted, "both accidentally and purposefully."

"Well, Grandma was scrolling through Emma's photos. When we got to the end, there was this video Emma had left us… sort of as a possible goodbye, I guess."

David took a sharp intake of breath. "She's not… She didn't…" He could barely speak; he was so scared of the possibility of what could have happened _after_ that goodbye.

"We don't know yet," Regina interrupted, cutting off his flow of incomplete sentences.

Henry continued on with his explanation. "Emma's favorite movie was always the Truman Show, remember? She felt like she could relate to it. And at the end of the video, she used a quote from the movie as her goodbye. She said, 'Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.'"

"So…" David didn't see where Henry was going with this.

" _So,_ at the end of the movie, Truman tests the limits of his world. He sails all the way across his ocean to make it to the other side, into the real world."

"I still don't get it."

"Emma's going to do the same thing. She's going to go to the edge of her world and test the limits. Think about it. What is, or used to be, the tallest building in New York?"

David dropped the phone then, catching Henry's drift. He couldn't take this; it was too hard. He wanted to be out there, looking for his daughter, but he had duties here. He hated that they'd stuck _him_ with the job of looking out for the town. Regina should be the one stuck here; this whole mess was all her fault, anyway. Had she never enacted the curse, he could have a daughter that _wasn't_ the same age as him.

Regina had been insistent on going with her son, though. She had also refused to care for baby Neal, saying her "diaper and spit-up days are over." And Henry _had_ to go; he was Emma's son and knew her the best.

He wasn't entirely sure why he'd let Snow go, though.

"Grandpa? Grandpa?" he heard through the receiver, the sound barely carrying far enough up from the floor for him to hear it.

He bent over and picked the phone back up. "You think she was going to jump off the Empire State Building. Because that would pretty much be the furthest she could take her immortality to." David knew had figured out Henry's idea, and he knew Henry was right.

"Exactly," confirmed Henry. Oh, how David wished he could be there with them. He missed his baby girl so much, and he wanted to be there to talk her out of this. Dark One or not, he didn't want her jumping off any buildings.

In the background, David heard a clicking sound, then the rustling of paper. "Mary Margaret," he heard Regina say urgently, "look at this."

Mary Margaret gasped. "Oh my God." She paused momentarily. "David, I have to go."

"Okay," said David, still a little peeved he wasn't with her. "Be safe. I love you."

"I love you, too," replied Mary Margaret.


	10. Chapter 10: We're Getting Closer

**A/N: "Of course you love Hook. that explains why David doesn't get to help find his daughter. Hook fans treat him like s*** all the time." – Guest review**

 **I love David just as much as I love Hook. I actually think David is one of the most genuine characters in the show and a wonderful father to Emma. I have to leave him out in the beginning because when I have too many main characters at once, I find the story becomes almost unbalanced and a little overwhelming. And, actually, Hook isn't really helping look for Emma at the moment. You'll find out where he is eventually. Plus, I'm saving up my Charming moments for the end**

" **How did Mary Margaret leave town with only half a heart. She should have dropped dead at the town line. Plus we know from 4.02 that she breastfeeds. No way would she be able to leave Neal. Just another mama Snow fan makibg David unimportant to his daughter :( " –Guest review**

 **Thank you for pointing this out. For baby Neal, keep in mind that there are pumps and baby formulas; Snow could have pumped ahead of time, then David simply buys formula when he runs out. As for the half a heart thing, I always thought that if Snow could survive with half a heart in Storybrooke, she could survive anywhere.**

Snow placed her phone back in her purse and grabbed the newspaper from Regina. "'Woman tries to jump off Empire State Building,'" she read. She looked at the picture underneath the title. "That's Emma!" she exclaimed, pointing excitedly to the printed image. The picture showed her daughter from behind, red leather jacket and blond hair and all, sitting on the very tippy-top of the protective bars of the building. Snow forced herself to tear her eyes away from the photo, as it physically hurt to look at it, and continued on to the actual story. "Yesterday afternoon, a woman was caught trying to jump off the Empire State Building. She had managed to climb all the way up to the top of the safety bars, climbing as if she were going up a vertical cliff. Fortunately, another woman pulled her back onto the balcony before she could jump. The whole thing was caught on video surveillance, and the woman is now resting at Mount Sinai hospital with minor injuries. She is under suicide watch but in stable condition." Snow took in a deep breath. "Her identity is unknown, and so far no one has claimed her as family, excluding the woman who pulled her from the bars. The woman claimed to be her sister, but she left, telling the hospital she wouldn't be back."

Mary Margaret looked up from the paper, a tiny smile on her lips. "She's safe. She's alive." She pressed a hand to her chest. "Emma's okay."

"Who's claiming to be Emma's sister?" Regina asked, hands on hips.

The three of them stood there for a long while, not really sure what to do. Finally, Henry, always the one with the ideas, piped up. "Shouldn't we go see her? Where'd it say she was?"

"Mount Sinai," Regina replied, arms crossed.

They just stood there for awhile again.

"I'll hail a cab," Snow eventually said, and stepped to the end of the sidewalk. She stuck her thumb out sideways.

Regina noticed her thumb and sighed. "That's not how you hail a cab," she said. "You're not a hitchhiker. Let me do it." Regina put her fingers to her lips and let out a long, shrill whistle. "Taxi!" she demanded, waving a hand in the air.

Pretty soon, a bright yellow car pulled up alongside them. Regina swiftly opened the door and allowed Snow and Henry to climb in first. When she stepped in the cab, Regina immediately said, "To Mount Sinai. And make it snappy."

"Of course, of course," the driver replied in a smooth Indian accent, smiling at her in the rearview mirror. He pressed on the gas. "Did you hear about that girl who tried to jump off the Empire State Building? I read she's actually staying at Sinai. What a wackadoo."

"Yeah," Regina said, studying the scene outside the window, "that would be our wackadoo."

"Oh, really?" The driver looked extremely amused at this.

Snow was livid at his amusement. She leaned forward in her seat. "Hey. It's not funny. That's my daugh-" Snow stopped herself before she could say "daughter." No way would the driver believe she had a daughter the same age as her. "Sister," she corrected. "That's my sister." Calling Emma her sister felt awkward, but she continued on anyway. "Imagine _your_ sister trying to kill herself, even if it's not by jumping off of the Empire State Building. Wouldn't you be devastated? Wouldn't you feel like you did something wrong, like you didn't give her enough love?"

The cab driver looked ashamed of himself. "Sorry," he apologized, his accent making him sound even more genuinely apologetic.

The rest of the drive was terribly awkward. Unfortunately, they were also in rush hour traffic, so it took them over two and a half hours to get to the hospital, thus extending the amount of awkwardness.

The driver finally, _finally,_ pulled up in front of a rather large hospital, probably ten times the size of the one in Storybrooke. "Here we are," the man said, parking his car on the side of the street. "Good luck."

"Thanks," the three answered in unison.

They walked nervously into the hospital entrance. Mary Margaret was the first to walk up to the front desk. "Excuse me," she said to the African-American man at the desk, "where might we find the patient rooms?"

He looked up from his stack of paperwork. "Ma'am, visiting hours are over. You can come back tomorrow between six a.m. and eight p.m."

"But-" Snow interjected, looking severely disappointed. "Can't you make an exception? We really need to see this person."

"I'm sorry, miss. I can't change the rules. Please come back tomorrow."

Snow slumped a little. "Fine. I'll come back tomorrow," she grouched. "Regina, Henry, let's go."

"No," whined Henry. "I want to see my mom!"

Snow shot him a sympathetic look and took his hand. "I'm sorry, Henry. They're not gonna let us in."

Henry's hurt look pierced Snow's heart deeply. She could definitely understand how disappointed he was. "Hey," she said quietly to him, gently nudging his shoulder. "She'll still be here tomorrow, and we'll come back here first thing."

Henry nodded, looking slightly comforted by this. "Okay."

Henry was up and dressed at the crack of dawn. First, he shook his mother (the one that _wasn't_ under suicide watch) awake. She rolled over so that her back was to him and pulled the covers over her head. "Stop it, Henry," she muttered.

"Mom, please, we have to get going. I want to get to Emma as soon as possible."

"That's all good and well, Henry," Regina mumbled from under the covers, "but it's four in the morning."

"Yes," Henry confirmed, leaning over her on the bed, "and last night you were willing to stay up all night to find Emma."

"That's right, Henry, and now I need to _make up_ that sleep that I lost whilst looking for your other mother."

"Fine."

Regina was so relieved when she felt Henry's weight leave the bed that she almost cried out in excitement. She heard him pad over to Mary Margaret. _Good,_ she thought. _Grandma will go with you. Let Grandma take care of things for once._

Regina wished she would have had parents to watch Henry when he was littler. The fact that she didn't was her own fault from her own doings, though, so she had to face every consequence that came with it.

"Grandma, wake up!" Henry loudly urged Snow. "We have to get to Emma as soon as possible."

Regina guessed that Snow was ignoring him as well, as she heard Henry groan from across the room. She listened as he walked back over to her side of the room, and the only thought running through her mind was _No no no no no no no no no oh please God no I just want one more hour of sleep._

"That's it." Henry's deepening voice was angry and conveyed that he was definitely fed up with both of them. He flung the curtains wide open, and light flooded into the room. Both Regina and Snow slung their arms over their eyes to block out the light. "Are you forgetting how much Emma's done for us over the years? Or does that mean nothing to you?" Henry asked them angrily. "Does Emma not deserve to be found as soon as possible, or is she the kind of thing that can wait? Yeah, let's sleep in. Sleep in until noon, eat a slow lunch, then take a nice stroll to the hospital. Emma, the person who saved us all, can wait. In fact, why do we even need to go today? Let's go see a movie or something; we can go tomorrow. Mom will understand."

Regina's eyes opened slowly, and she sat up. It wasn't like Henry to get this angry; he had always been so mellow. "Wow, Henry," she said apologetically. She extended her arms to Henry; he came over and sat on her lap and rested his head on her shoulder like old times. "I'm sorry. I had no idea you felt so strongly about this."

Henry nodded into her shoulder. "Emma's my mom, too. I love her, I missed out on ten years with her, and I don't want to miss a single second more."

Snow realized that she should be even more motivated than Henry right then. After all, she had missed _twenty-eight,_ not just ten, years of her daughter's life. Plus, she had always been saying that she wanted to spend more time with Emma, so how could she do that if she didn't even know where Emma _was?_

Emma was far more important than a few extra hours of sleep.

After this, Snow and Regina were up and dressed within fifteen minutes. Knowing Henry's true feelings indicated to them both that if they so much as let their heads touch the pillow again, Henry would be deeply offended and feel they didn't care for him.

Their love for Henry was what got them going; their love for Emma was what kept them going.

Regina had packed a small brown baggie with food as a makeshift breakfast-on-the go for the three of them. As they were walking on the street, Regina pulled out one of the two apples and offered it to Snow.

"No," Snow declined. "I don't trust apples."

"Understandably," Regina said, dropping the apple back in the bag. "Bagel?" she offered instead. Snow declared the food to be safe and accepted.

Henry peeked inside the bag. "I want the muffin!" he said excitedly. Sometimes he still seemed to be four years old to Regina.

Not surprisingly, Regina was left with the apples. She ate them contentedly.

"I'm so ready to see Emma again," Henry said happily, stopping at the bus station to wait.

So were Regina and Snow, but the two shared a look that showed they had a bad feeling that wouldn't be happening today.


	11. Chapter 11: Wild Goose Chase

**A/N: This story is supposed to be on hiatus, but I figured what the heck! I'm feeling writer-y today. This'll be short though, since I SHOULD be taking a break. Is it just me, or does this chapter feel kind of up-and-down? I don't know. Please review! Tell me what you think** **J**

When Snow, Regina, and Henry arrived at the front desk of Mount Sinai hospital, there was a different man running the station.

"Where's the guy from last night?" whispered Henry to his mom and grandmother.

"People in this world have shifts," Snow whispered back. "They might work for a certain number of hours, then switch out with another person so they can rest but the business can keep running."

Henry was unfamiliar with this whole "shifts" concept. Storybrooke was a small town, and the curse had pretty much created a specific job for each person in it. This meant when someone was done working for the day in Storybrooke, the shop was closed. Nobody took over for them.

Not wanting to waste any more time over such a silly question, Henry shrugged off the thought and hurried over to the man at the desk. "Hi," he said, a large smile eating up his face. He was just so excited to see Emma again; he could barely contain all his excitement. It was spilling over the edges. He bounced up and down like a six-year-old.

The man looked down on him. You could tell the man was trying to keep track of Henry's bouncing face by the way his eyes bobbed rapidly up and down. Combined with his serious expression and suit, the whole thing looked ridiculous. "How may I help you?"

"Um, we're here to see that girl who tried to jump off the Empire State Building?" Henry replied, raising his voice on the last word as if it were a question. He was still going up and down like crazy. "Her name's Emma Swan, and we're her family. I'm her son, and um," he glanced back at Mary Margaret and Regina, "those are my, uh, aunts. Her… sisters." He smiled wider at the man, who was still trying to keep track of Henry's childlike movements.

The guy looked skeptical about this information, but moved his eyes away from the excited Henry and typed something into his computer anyway. "She's not here anymore. It says here she was checked out yesterday. Apparently, she healed extremely fast and was stable, physically, enough to go."

"Hold on." Regina strode over to the desk. "She tried to kill herself. Don't you have some sort of 72-hour suicide watch policy? Surely you wouldn't just release a suicidal person back into the public? Because I can call my lawyer, and it won't be pretty." Regina's voice was threatening.

"No, no; no lawyers. Yes; we watched her closely up until the point she was released, and it says here she had mild restraints. Ma'am, I believe she was just moved to a mental hospital with better resources for these kinds of situations than us. Your other sister was here the other day and requested that. I believe Miss, uh, what was it? Swan? Is still under suicide watch."

Regina nodded her approval and looked quickly back at Snow. "Who's the 'other sister'?" she mouthed.

Snow shrugged and threw her hands up. "I don't know," she mouthed back. "We'll figure it out LATER." Snow jabbed her finger in the direction of the desk manager to indicate that Regina needed to f-o-c-u-s.

Regina turned back to the man. "Can you tell us exactly where she went?"

"I'm sorry," the man said, shaking his head. "It doesn't say here where she went. I couldn't tell you if I wanted to."

Regina threw her hands up in the air. "I feel like I'm on a wild goose chase. Henry, Mary Margaret, let's go."

As they left the building, Regina said, "I feel like when we finally find Emma, she'll be waiting for us on a merry-go-round, not in a psychiatric hospital."

Henry and Snow nodded their frustrated agreement. It felt to them like they would never find Emma.

Ever.


	12. Chapter 12: Lily Knows All

**David's POV**

 _Knock!Knock!Knock!Knock!_

Four rapid, short knocks, with no pause in between.

David groaned as Neal began to wail. Did someone need to make noise _every_ time he had just gotten the baby to sleep? He was starting to notice a pattern here.

David strode unhappily over to the door and flung it open, expecting someone who was going to really irritate him. He wasn't wrong, exactly, but his blue eyes widened in shock when he saw who was _at his door_ and sort of… _in his face._

Lily pushed past him and dropped her messenger bag on the table, ignoring any formalities. "I saw Emma," she said simply, plopping down into Mary Margaret's wooden chairs. The seat creaked underneath her but refused to break.

David was stunned. To his knowledge, not even Snow and the others had found her yet. They had an idea, but no Emma.

David pulled a chair up to the table and sat in it. "What? Where? How?"

Lily fished around in her bag and pulled out a wrinkled newspaper. She dropped it in the center of the table. David leaned forward so he could see it more clearly. "Woman tries to jump off Empire State Building," he read aloud. Beneath the title was his Emma, poised to jump (or slide, he guessed) off the Empire State Building. Though the picture was taken from the back, it was definitely _his_ Emma; the woman had Emma's blond waves and Emma's red leather jacket.

It was too much for him to take. He tore his eyes away from the devastating picture in front of him to look back up at Lily.

"Did she- _did_ she?" was all he could manage.

Lily rolled her eyes as if it were obvious. "No, I pulled her down before she could."

David leaned back in as relief washed over him in waves. "Thank God," he breathed out as he pressed his fingers to his temples. This was all getting to be too much for him. It was hard enough taking care of a newborn, but not having Mary Margaret to help and worrying constantly about Emma was not making it any easier. David couldn't remember the last time he'd slept.

Instantly David felt bad for being upset over a _lack of sleep._ His _daughter_ was missing, and dear God, what the hell was wrong with him? Sleep. Daughter. Sleep. Daughter. It should be oh, so obvious which was more important.

Daughter.

"How'd you find Emma?"

Lily's angry green eyes bore into him. She kicked her booted feet up onto the table. "Remember that whole thing where you gave _me_ Emma's dark potential?" She cocked her head threateningly to the side.

"Yes." David held his hands up in surrender. "And we're sorry for that; we know it was wrong now."

Lily ignored his apology. "That didn't pan out so well, by the way. And turns out _I_ have a new superpower."

David looked at her questioningly. "What are you talking about?"

David could see the resentment for him in her eyes. "That was supposed to be part of _Emma,_ yes? Well, it's still part of _Emma,_ it's just not attached to her. Kind of like those phantom pains soldiers get when a leg gets chopped-"

"I don't need the gruesome details," David quickly interrupted her. He'd been killed twice, and he felt his own kinds of phantom pains when someone brought something like that up. He always did his best to steer clear of the subject.

Lily pushed her brown hair back and crossed her arms. "Fine. You don't deserve it, but I'll get to the point. That part of _Emma,_ " she spat out, "can sense where _Emma_ is. It's like an Emma GPS." She shrugged lightly; it seemed like her anger was starting to dissolve slightly. "I had a feeling I should follow her, and so I did."

This David somewhat understood, but he was still confused about something. Or some _things,_ rather. "How come you just left her there? And how did you get back into Storybrooke?"

Lily waved her hand dismissively at him and shifted the position of her boots on the table. Mary Margaret would freak if she knew there were feet on her kitchen table. He guessed she was probably out there somewhere, looking up and saying, "I sense a disturbance in the force."

"Don't worry about how I got back into Storybrooke; all magic has its flaws," Lily said. "What you need to worry about is Emma, because once you bring her back to Storybrooke, you'll have almost no time to figure things out. Right now, a world without magic is Emma's saving grace."

Lily popped a piece of gum into her mouth and removed her shoes (finally) from the tabletop. "I'm leaving," she announced abruptly. "You can figure the rest out on your own."

She stood up, marched out of the apartment, and slammed the door behind her. "Thanks for ruining my life, by the way!" she called through the walls.

David eyed the dagger embedded in his wife's walls. He read the name engraved on it for the millionth time. _Emma Swan._

"It wasn't just your life we ruined," he mumbled.


	13. Chapter 13: Really, Emma?

**A/N: Sorry for another short chapter! I really appreciate all the support so far, though, you guys! Love you all! Mwah! 3**

Regina shot up like a bullet in bed. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Are you _serious_?"

Henry immediately sat up beside her, and she heard the rustling of covers across the room. She knew she had woken both of her hotel-mates. "What? What?" Snow asked, sounding panicked.

Regina pressed both hands to her face. "Ohhhh, God. We are _so_ stupid."

" _What?"_ Snow repeated, the urgency obvious in her voice.

"There's a mental hospital _at Mount Sinai._ St. Luke's. Emma never _left._ "

"What!" cried out Snow upon hearing Regina's revelation. "Then why the hell did _we_ leave?!"

"I don't know; I don't know; I don't know!" Regina said violently, waving her hands around in the air.

Snow looked over at Regina in the dark. "Do you think Emma told them to tell us she left?"

Regina nodded her head and pressed her eyes shut. "Yep."

"And we fell for it?"

Regina nodded again. "Yep."

"We're going back tomorrow," Snow declared.

"Yep," Regina and Henry agreed in unison.

The three of them had a silent celebration. For the first time, they actually felt like they were getting one step closer to Emma and not two steps further away.

Snow silently reminded herself to notify David.


	14. Chapter 14: Emma, Finally

**A/N: I have NO idea what the patient rooms at St. Luke's looks like, so I'm just gonna roll with my ideas! Also, sorry if I'm bugging you with Regina having so many lines; I just feel she's more perceptive and insightful than some of the other characters.**

There was a clicking noise, then the heavy door to the room swung wide open. A tall, dark, muscular guard emerged with his arms crossed and biceps bulging. "You have visitors. Can they come in, or no?"

The figure folded into the corner of the room sluggishly lifted her head from her lap. "Who are they?" Her voice was raspy and distant; it was barely audible even though the room was dead silent.

The guard shrugged. "Didn't ask; don't care."

It was the girl who shrugged this time, though the action was barely perceptible. "Sure, they can come in. I guess."

"Hold on," the guard said forcefully. He left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Emma listened to the hollow, metallic sound that reverberated through the room as he bolted the door shut.

* * *

"Here she is," said the guard, gesturing at Emma, before turning and leaving. She was still sitting in the corner of the room, knees folded up to her chest.

Henry burst into the room at full speed. "Mom!" he shouted. Emma barely managed to stand up in time for Henry to run into her at full force and wrap his arms securely around her.

Regina and Snow came walking in not too far behind him. They both stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Emma, though; she didn't look like the Emma they were used to. For one, she wasn't wearing her usual attire of a tank top, leather jacket, skinny jeans, and combat boots. All she had on were simple running shorts and a gray t-shirt, and her feet were bare. But that was the least of the differences in Emma. Dark circles rimmed her eyes, and the normal confidence she carried in her posture and expression was gone. Emma looked afraid. Terrified.

Emma's unsure eyes met Snow and Regina's faces. She gingerly placed one arm on Henry's back in an attempt to return his hug, but it was clear she was afraid she would hurt him.

"Henry, come here," Regina called, sensing Emma's uncomfortable-ness.

"Emma," Snow breathed at the sight of her daughter. She made her way quickly across the room and lightly placed her hands on Emma's cheeks. Mary Margaret smiled at the bittersweet sight in front of her, and a tear slipped down her cheek. She pulled her daughter into a tight embrace.

Regina noticed Emma flinch ever so slightly at Mary Margaret's touch. Having been former enemies with the blonde, she knew a lot of Emma's tells and weaknesses, so to her, the movement was more than obvious.

"Snow, Henry, can I have a moment alone with Emma?" Regina said abruptly.

Snow looked surprised and frankly, a little upset, but she nodded her consent. "Alright." She led Henry out of the room, who honestly looked slightly disappointed as well.

"I saw that," Regina said accusingly.

Emma crossed her arms and looked down at her bare feet. Her matted blond waves covered her face. "Saw what." She didn't even bother to make the sentence sound like a question; she already knew what Regina was talking about.

"Emma!" Regina exclaimed, frustrated. She grabbed Emma's arm and pulled her aside. "Why are you flinching whenever Henry or Mary Margaret touches you?"

Emma looked up then, and Regina immediately dropped Emma's arm and gasped. Whatever parts of her face Snow had touched were a deep red, as if she'd been burnt. There was the faintest hint of the gold sparkle that was common to the Dark One's complexion, just barely visible underneath the red on Emma's cheeks.

"It's not just my face," Emma admitted. She extended her arms; there was an apple colored line from when Henry had hugged her, and another from Snow's hug There was even a sparkling, red, hand-shaped pattern where Regina had grabbed her.

"Does it hurt?" Regina asked.

"What?" Emma's forehead creased into a frown.

"Does it hurt?" Regina repeated.

Emma closed her tired green eyes. "Yeah, a lot."

"I get it," Regina said, sitting on Emma's bed. She looked around the room; it was relatively simple: white plaster walls, light fixtures that were even with the ceiling, and a twin bed with stiff sheets in the center of the room. That was it. There wasn't even a bathroom in the room. Regina drew in a deep breath. "You're so afraid of hurting them that it hurts _you_ to be near them."

Emma paced the room, her arms crossed. "Yeah. I guess."

"You're not gonna hurt them," Regina assured her.

"Not now," Emma said truthfully. "But who knows what'll happen once this whole thing progresses? I don't know if or what I'll be able to resist then."

"Let's cross that bridge when we get there. And I'm guessing you still have some magic in this world?"

Emma groaned. "It's kicking my ass. There's basically this 'there can be only one' battle going on between Saviour Emma and Dark Emma, and I'm pretty sure they're both going to lose in the end."

Regina looked sympathetic. "We'll get it figured out. Don't tell Snow or Henry about this, though, okay? They don't need to know."

Emma nodded slowly, the redness fading away from her face and arms as she calmed down a little.

"Henry, Snow, you can come back in now!" Regina immediately called through the door. They both came in quickly, and Henry resumed his hug with Emma. Snow joined her daughter and grandson; she wrapped one arm around Henry and the other around Emma. For now, Emma didn't flinch at either touch; she just enjoyed the fact that her mother and son were with her. Even if she hadn't wanted them to find her.

Regina shared a look with Emma, letting her know she had a friend in addition to a devoted family and boyfriend.

"We need to talk about some things later," Regina said to her.

Emma nodded and rested her chin on Henry's soft curls.


	15. Chapter 15

The lights flickered on and off in Emma's room as she slowly backed herself into the corner, away from the men approaching her. She pressed her palms flat against the wall and turned her face to avoid the pill aimed at her mouth. The doctor and a guard had her trapped her in the corner now. "It's just an anti-anxiety," the doctor assured her, trying to hide his annoyance at the lights. He would have to get a janitor in later to replace the bulbs. "Nothing else."

Emma shook her head rapidly, and her un-brushed blond curls flew every which way. She refused to take any medicines willingly. She slid down the rough wall, the bumps on the wall creating long scratches down her arms. As soon as her butt hit the floor, Emma shot out around the guard and bolted for the door. She flung it open and sprinted down the hallway, her blond hair streaming out behind her. Even though Emma was terrified, she was also exhilarated. It had been a while since she'd had to make a run for it. She's forgotten how exciting life as a criminal could be.

"We've got a runner!" the doctor shouted behind Emma, and she heard the hollow pounding of footsteps as someone chased her down the tiled hallway.

Emma smiled to herself. Even slightly worn down by her magic, she was still far faster than these idiots. They should at least give her a challenge.

Emma could see the stairway exit door. She began to run faster. It was twenty feet away. Ten. She reached over and knocked over a potted plant as she fled, movie-style, to block whoever's way that was chasing her. She listened to the crashing sound and faint curse as her pursuer tripped and went sprawling.

Five feet to the door.

Four.

Three.

Someone came crashing into Emma from the side, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying backwards. Whoever had knocked her over had also fallen from the collision, Emma noticed, so she scrambled to get back up before he or anyone else could get to her.

Unfortunately, the man who had fallen was up and on Emma like a lightning bolt. She found herself pinned to a wall, her chest heaving from the run. She struggled against the man's grip on her wrists; she was extremely strong, but the man was much stronger than her.

"You give up one hell of a fight," the man breathed at her.

At this point, other staff and personnel had begun to gather around her, blocking any chance of an exit. To Emma's surprise, not one of them looked angry at her attempt at escape. Most of them looked annoyed, like escape didn't happen often, but it did happen often enough to turn the feeling during the handling of it it from excited to frustrated.

Emma spat in his face. "That's what happens when you learn to live on your own."

The man looked back at his co-workers surrounding him. "She's feisty, too." The sentence was accompanied by a laugh. "Sedate and restrain her," he ordered.

A woman approached her with a liquid-filled syringe. Emma squirmed away from the needle, but the man held her stiffly in place.

The needle pierced her arm and released the clear fluid into her veins. Emma felt an overwhelming calmness quickly wash over her, and she suddenly couldn't remember what she had been trying to do. All she knew was that she was very tired.

"I could use a nap," Emma mumbled.

The man pinning her to the wall released her and chuckled genuinely. "I know."

He led her by the arm back to her room. Emma didn't, couldn't protest.


	16. Chapter 16: I am Trapped

Emma could feel the rough, thick sheets against her skin that she had come to be familiar with over the past few days. They were tucked tightly underneath her sides, so tightly that she could hardly move. Emma squirmed crazily, hoping to loosen the death grip the sheets had on her. To her chagrin, it didn't work; in fact, the uncomfortable hospital-issued sheets only felt all the tighter, thanks to her efforts.

Emma groaned loudly. She was all for sleeping the day away; sleep had been her only true escape from the world back when she was on her own. City streets, buses, trains, beds, cars, it was all the same to her. She was willing to and could crash anywhere. But now, Emma actually had a world she loved to be in. She didn't want to escape from it with sleep; she loved every minute she spent in Storybrooke.

The problem was, becoming the Dark One had kicked her out of that world. As soon as Emma had felt the malicious, corrupted power of the Dark One pulsing through her veins, taking over her very being, she had known she had to get out of there before someone got hurt.

Thus, she had found herself straddling the town line, half of her body in Storybrooke, the other half sticking out into the real world. It was like the Dark One inside her had been asking, "Well, Emma, do we stay, or do we go?"

And Emma had answered that question by removing the remaining half of her body from the town she had grown to love. She loved it so much so that she was willing to leave it to save it.

Emma's memories were interrupted by the creak of her door as it opened painstakingly slowly. She watched one of her doctors peek his head in the door to see if she was awake. Emma instinctively shut her eyes and steadied her breathing, faking drug-induced sleep.

The door opened wider, and Emma noticed that there were two, not one, sets of footsteps entering the room.

"You tucked her in?" she heard the doctor that had poked his head in the door say.

"She looked like she could use it." The other voice was coming from the guy who had pinned her against the wall and ruined her chances at escape. She could almost _feel_ his shrug.

If Emma had managed to make it to the stairs, even after he'd knocked her over, she probably could have made it out of the hospital with no further problems or obstructions.

"You're an idiot," the first man said.

The other guy let the insult roll off of him "I know," he answered bck.

Emma fluttered her eyes open as if she were waking up. There wasn't much faking to do after that, though; she kind of _was_ still waking up from the drugs. She was dizzy, her head felt hollow, and she was pretty sure there were _two_ doctors in the room, not four like she was seeing.

"What happened?" Emma questioned the two doctors, even though she knew exactly what had happened. The scene was still running clearly through her mind, plus all of the ways it could have gone differently. All of the ways it could have gone _better._

"You ran," was the answer.

"Can you loosen these sheets, please? They're really tight. It's hard to move." Emma smiled politely. She was trying to be on her best behavior; she knew now that one wrong move could seriously screw her up.

The guy that had caught the runaway Emma tugged at the covers. "Happy to, but it won't make much of a difference."

"What?!" Emma worked to kick the loosened sheets completely off, but the process was slow-moving and difficult. She soon found out why: her ankles and wrists were tied down by the same leather restraints she's had back in the hospital. "Is it really necessary to bind me to the bed?" Emma exclaimed, suddenly angry. She balled her hands into fists. The lighting in the room intensified as Emma's anger got the best of her and caused her to lose some of her control over her powers.

Both men nodded. "It is necessary when you run," the first doctor informed her. "Restraints, physical or chemical, are only used when a patient won't cooperate and starts to fight or run."

"Oh," Emma responded, unclenching her fingers. That was probably good information to know. The lighting returned to normal, and luckily, neither doctor seemed to associate the change in brightness with Emma's alternating emotions.

"Your family's here," the other man said. "Are you up to seeing them?"

"Uh-" Emma wasn't sure she wanted Mary Margaret or Henry to see her all chained up. Plus, she was fairly sure whatever was left of the Evil Queen in Regina would get a kick out of her situation. "No. Tell them to come back in a couple of days, please?"

The escape-ruiner raised an eyebrow at her. "Really?"

Emma pointed her chin at the restraints on each of her limbs. "Would _you_ want your family to see you like this?"

When she lifted her hands to assert her point, Emma noticed that the deep gash she had received in her hand only days before had completely healed. Actually, it had vanished completely; there wasn't even the faintest of scars lingering on her palm. Yesterday, the injury had still _been_ there at least, though it had only been a pale pink colored scar. A color that normally took _months,_ not _days,_ to achieve. Emma had assumed that the scar would eventually be the color of her skin but still be present and noticeable nonetheless; she had accepted that thanks to her overwhelming power, healing was extremely accelerated.

However, it was _gone._ Scars were for life.

But hers… it had just disappeared.

This fact terrified Emma. She was starting to expect that her powers were becoming stronger and her time left shorter.

The man laughed at Emma's question. "No, I guess I wouldn't."

With that, both men exited the room. And as they left, Emma heard an unfamiliar voice whisper in her mind.

She couldn't make out what it was saying. Yet.


	17. Chapter 17: An Idea, an Escape

**A/N: Here's a short chapter… just 'cuz! Happy double chapter day!**

Emma gripped the edges of the bathroom sink so hard that her knuckles turned white. She leaned in until her nose was almost pressed against the glass mirror. Being the Dark One and the Savior simultaneously was really taking a toll on Emma, although only physically for the time being.

She wasn't completely sure, but Emma guessed she'd been the Dark One for nine days now. Already she could see she was sporting bags underneath her green eyes, which were, of course, accompanied by dark circles. Her skin was giving way to an unhealthy, almost white, pallor. Plus, she was also rapidly losing weight; Emma had always been on the skinny side, but now, she was dangerously close to becoming underweight. The doctors thought she was anorexic. But Emma ate every bite of her food.

The truth was, there was a completely different kind of battle going on inside of her.

Emma suddenly had a glimmer of hope as she thought about something. She knew the classic story of her mother, the one everyone knew, where the Evil Queen changed herself into an old lady in order to gain the trust of Snow White. That was how Regina had tricked her mom into eating a poison apple. What if Emma could change _her_ appearance, too? Could she escape, then?

Emma stared hard at her reflection. While her powers were certainly limited, she didn't have _no_ magic here; it was worth a shot. But how to do it? Eyes open, or eyes closed? Did it even matter?

Emma was giddy with excitement at this realization. "Brown eyes!" she promptly told the mirror. Nothing happened. "Brown eyes," Emma commanded. She scowled when still nothing happened.

Emma gave up rather quickly. It was a only matter of minutes until she realized nothing was going to happen. She was not one to continue doing something the same way over and over and expect a different result each time. Maybe Emma's magic wasn't strong enough, maybe she just wasn't doing it right; Emma didn't really care. She resolved to ask Regina to teach her how to switch appearances when she next came with Mary Margaret and Henry.

Emma was just happy to have an _idea_ at a way of escape.

There was a heavy knock on the bathroom door. "Almost done in there?" the guard that was to bring her back to her room called.

"Yes!" Emma called back with a grin. The first real grin she'd had in a while.


	18. Chapter 18:BeSwitched

"Are you sure you can do this, Emma?" Regina's voice was mixed with uncertainty. She wasn't sure how much magic Emma had here, nor did she know how much energy this would take away from her.

Snow and Henry had finally found out about Emma having magic in this world, although not about the part where it hurt Emma every time they touched her. Emma and Regina had had to tell them about her magic in order for their plan to work.

Emma's exhausted green eyes met Regina's dark brown ones from across the room. "No, I'm not sure, but I have to try, right?" she replied.

"I think she should try it, Mom," Henry agreed. "We don't have any other ideas at the moment, anyway. Plus, the hospital said they're not comfortable with releasing Emma yet. We _need_ to get Emma out of here."

Snow spoke up from her spot in the corner. "What if it doesn't work? Or what if the spell doesn't wear off and we end up getting Regina stuck here, instead?"

Regina shrugged and leaned back against the door. "I kind of deserve it, don't I? That would be nothing compared to what I've done to others. Besides, they'd release me _eventually_."

"Okay, okay, fine," Snow said. "I'm just really worried about Emma, and I guess you, too, Regina, though not as much."

Regina laughed genuinely. "I appreciate your honesty."

"So… what am I supposed to be doing?" Emma asked. "Do I just say, 'I want to look just like Regina,' or something?"

Regina smirked at the blonde. "No. It's more like being in a play; you have to build up the character and just kind of… _become_ that person."

"Right." Emma nodded. "So, I want to be a bitchy brunette, basically."

"Very funny, Miss Swan." Regina crossed her arms. She bit back a sassy remark and kept her seriousness. She continued on. "Turning _me_ into _you_ will be more difficult. I'm not even sure how to do it; you'll have to figure it out on your own."

"What?!" exclaimed Emma. "So I'm on my own for that? What if we end up with _two_ Reginas and _no_ Emmas?"

"Can we cross that bridge _if_ and when we get there, please, Swan? Right now, the plan is to turn you into me and me into you. That's it," Regina assured her. "The more you worry about it going wrong, the more likely it is to go wrong."

"Let me make sure I have this whole thing straight," Snow pleaded. "Emma is going to make _you_ look like _her_ and _herself_ look like _you_? And Henry and I are going to leave with the Regina-looking Emma and leave you, the real Regina, here? Then, the magic on you, Regina, is supposed to wear off, and you'll go back to being Regina, call a guard, and ask to be let go since you're not a patient here. Right?" Snow's head was spinning; this was an incredibly confusing plan. It was so hard to keep the details straight that she sounded like a lost kindergartener whilst listing out all the steps involved.

"You got it," Regina said encouragingly. "Your only job here is to take Emma and Henry out of here."

"Okay," Snow said nervously.

Regina shifted her position so she was totally facing Emma. "Are you ready, Emma? We should probably get this done soon."

Emma didn't say anything, only nodded.

Emma glanced quickly back at her mother and son, then took in a large swallow of air. She decided she would start by turning Regina into _her._ Better to get the hard part over with.

Emma drew from every last bit of power she could feel pulsing inside of her. She drew from her thoughts, her emotions, her needs, her wants. A wild wind picked up in the room as she did so, whipping her blond hair around her expressionless face. Emma drew from everything she knew she was and everything she knew, and she sent all of that into one place, one ball of _Emma_ , tucked in between her fingertips. It was almost beautiful; the tiny swirling mass was a mixture of every color imaginable: red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, black, white, silver, gold. Emma felt she was holding the most precious rainbow.

The swirling orb spun with more force, and the wind in the room became twice as intense. It was all anyone could do to stay standing.

Emma suddenly hurled the colorful ball of light at Regina; it passed right into Regina's chest. Right where her heart was.

Suddenly, a rainbow array of colors swirled around Regina, much like the dark tendrils had done days before, only with much more beauty and much more purpose. Regina's face took on more of Emma's features by the second, and you could see Regina's body being re-molded into Emma's through the colored lights encircling her.

The wind stopped abruptly, the lovely colors in the room disappeared, and there Regina stood, looking exactly like Emma.

The real Emma collapsed to the floor in exhaustion, and Mary Margaret hurried to her side. She helped the unsteady blonde to her feet and onto the bed.

Emma had just enough energy to hide the red marks left behind by her mother's touch from view. It was simply that she was so afraid of hurting the people she loved that caused the painful, sparkling red marks to appear on her skin wherever they touched her. It was like she was trying to give them some defense against her.

Regina studied the lighter skin that was now covering her arms, held up a strand of blond hair in her face, and pressed her hands to her face. She could feel Emma's high cheekbones on her own face, and the scar that normally resided on her upper lip had disappeared. "Emma, that was amazing," Regina breathed. "I didn't know this kind of thing was possible!"

Emma panted heavily from her place on the bed. She was _so_ tired now. She felt like she'd just run a marathon. No, _two_ marathons. Sweat was running down her face and exploding from practically every pore in her body.

Mary Margaret gently pushed a strand of sweat-soaked hair from Emma's face. "I know you're tired, Emma, but this can't work unless we have a Regina look-alike to walk out with."

Emma groaned. "I'll try," she mumbled. "But I'm not standing up for it."

This time, instead of drawing from her own powers, Emma shut her eyes and searched for the presence of Regina's magic. It was faint, since this world suppressed magic, but Emma found it. She mentally grabbed onto it and imagined what it would be like to _be_ Regina. Emma imagined walking around with Regina's short raven-colored layers and piercing brown eyes. She imagined how much love she must hold for Henry and how hard it must be for her to share her only son with a mother who had asked for a _closed_ adoption. Emma thought about how Regina had overcome her own demons to become good; she thought about how Regina must be tempted on a daily basis to return to the Villain's side.

"Emma?" Mary Margaret's soft voice broke through Emma's thoughts.

Emma sat up in her psychiatric hospital bed. Something felt different.

She reached up and felt her now layered, short brown haircut, exactly like Regina told her she had done after casting the curse.

Across the room stood… herself. But it wasn't herself. It was Regina with Emma's looks.

"Holy shit," Emma said.

"Emma, you've been sleeping for forty-five minutes. We need to get going now. Regina's guessing this whole different-looks thing will wear off within the next four hours, and we want to get going _long_ before that happens." Mary Margaret's voice was both gentle and insistent at the same time.

Emma nodded sluggishly. Emma was tired, but less so than before, presumably because unlike her own thinning figure, Regina's body still had some muscle and energy left.

Regina Mills may have had to play the part of psychiatric patient Emma Swan for a few hours, but the real Emma Swan walked out of the hospital freely and with absolutely no opposition.


	19. Chapter 19: Back to Storybrooke

**A/N: If anyone was confused by how they snuck Emma out last chapter, here's an outline:**

 **Emma switched appearances with Regina temporarily. Emma, looking like Regina, left the hospital with Snow and Henry. Then, when the magic that made Regina look like Emma wore off, Regina got the attention of a hospital worker and asked to be let go, being that she wasn't the patient that was supposed to be in the room (which would be Emma). Hope that helped!**

Emma, back to her normal blond self, slept soundly in the back of her yellow bug. Regina, also back to herself, was driving, Snow had shotgun, and Henry was staring out the window at the passing sights from beside Emma.

"How much further until Storybrooke?" Henry asked, probably for the fifteenth time.

Regina sighed at her impatient son. "I don't know, Henry. A few hours, maybe."

"Okay." Henry accepted the time estimate.

"You remembered the scroll, right, Henry?" Snow asked from the front seat. "We can't get back into Storybrooke without it."

"Right here, Grandma." Henry patted the side of his backpack. "I remembered it the first four times you asked, too."

A small smirk formed at the corner of Regina's lips. "Now you know how annoying it is when someone constantly asks you the same question."

Henry stuck his tongue out at his mother. He didn't care that he was fifteen, and that that was a childish thing to do. Henry had a right to be his own person.

Snow pressed her cheek against the cool glass of the window and observed her sleeping daughter through the side view mirror. She couldn't help but wonder why Emma was looking sicker and sicker as the days went on. Sure, today had been a lot of work for Emma, but she had been looking ill before today, too. She was becoming worried for her daughter.

"Regina," Snow whispered so Henry wouldn't hear.

The brunette flicked her eyes to the younger woman. "What, Mary Margaret?"

"Why do you think Emma looks so… unhealthy?"

Regina used the rearview mirror to glance back Emma. "I don't know. Maybe they didn't take very good care of her in there."

Snow sighed. "Maybe, but she wasn't in the hospital for very long; she couldn't've gotten _that_ bad _that fast_ , could she have? She looked fine in the picture from the paper. And that was just days before we saw her," Snow pointed out.

Regina shrugged. "I don't know how fast people go downhill. Maybe she's right on track."

"You're not very helpful, you know that?" Snow told her.

"I used to be the Evil Queen; helpful isn't exactly my forte."

"Right," Snow responded, looking down at the floor of the car.

They rode the rest of the way to Storybrooke in a heavy, uncomfortable silence.

* * *

"I think we're getting close to Storybrooke," Regina mumbled once she started to feel the town's presence, thus breaking the silence.

Snow's phone suddenly rang from her purse. She fished it out and answered it. "Hello…?"

"Snow?" It was David.

"David!" Snow exclaimed happily. "Listen, we found Emma, and we're bringing her back to Storybrooke!"

"What?!" David's voice was filled with shock and worry. "Mary Margaret, no, you can't bring Emma back into Storybrooke."

Snow frowned, her eyebrows scrunching close together. "Why not?"

Henry began to count down their entrance into Storybrooke loudly, like an excited child going into a new state. "Ten… Nine…Eight…Seven…Six…"

David's voice crackled over the speaker. "Lily told me it's not a good idea to bring Emma back into Storybrooke-"

As soon as David said the word "Storybrooke," Henry hit zero in his countdown, and the car crossed over the town line. David said something else, too, after the word "Storybrooke," but Snow missed it because of the events that happened next.

Emma's eyes flew wide open, and she instantly shot forward in her seat, clutching her head between her hands. Her face scrunched up, and her features twisted into an expression of pure agony.

Henry noticed Emma's unusual behavior. "Mom, are you okay?" he asked urgently.

Emma rapidly shook her head no. She made sounds that were crosses between a moan and a scream.

"Is that Emma?" David asked over the phone upon hearing the noises. His rich voice was filled with panic for his daughter. "Are you in Storybrooke?"

"Yeah!" replied Mary Margaret worriedly. "David, what's happening?"

At this point, Regina had evacuated Henry from the car and was forcing him to keep his eyes off of his other mother, who was currently crying out at the excruciating pain radiating throughout her body.

"Mary Margaret, get Emma out of Storybrooke. I think she has too much magic here for her own good."

Snow immediately dropped the phone and stepped out of the car. She flung open the passenger side door and grabbed her daughter by the waist with one arm. Snow pressed her free hand against Emma's matted blond curls in an attempt to comfort her. She was pretty sure it wasn't that comforting, though.

It was in this awkward position that Snow dragged Emma back out of Storybrooke.


	20. Chapter 20: Killian

**A/N: Wow, twenty chapters already! And I can't believe how much support I've gotten from all of you guys so far :)** **To all of you who have favorited, followed, or are just reading this, thank you! All my love~ Mwah!**

 **Heeeeeeere's Killian!**

Emma could feel a warm hand gently stroking her hair, though she wasn't sure who the hand belonged to. Since her head was pounding, she didn't care to open her eyes to find out who it was. She just wanted to lie there, on the ground, and never move again. Was it _really_ possible to be in _this_ much pain? There was not a single part of her body that did not ache, or burn, or hurt, or throb.

Wait, she took that back. Hair. Nails. Those didn't, _couldn't,_ hurt. Emma silently thanked the Lord that he had given humans these very few parts that felt no pain.

So Emma focused on her painless toenails as someone shifted her into their lap with strong arms. She focused on her unshaven leg hairs as the searing pains tore through her skin at every place the person touched. She also ignored the nearly crippling fear that the Dark One in her would emerge, angered by the pain, and take the life of this man who was only trying to be kind.

" _You thrive off of other people's lives now,"_ a whisper came from deep inside her mind. It seemed that it was answering back to Emma's fear of killing someone. _"Their pains, their miseries, their sorrows are your glories,"_ the voice told her. _"Go on, take a crack at it! Hurt someone. Destroy something. It's really quite fun."_

Was Emma going crazy? It seemed she was hearing voices in her head now.

Wait. WAIT. Hadn't Lily warned her about this? Was this the Dark One speaking to her?

" _It certainly is the Dark One that speaks to you, Dearie,"_ the voice replied. Emma inwardly groaned and rolled her eyes. Great. Not only was she hearing voices, but the voice spoke exactly like Rumpelstiltskin.

"Emma, love, please wake up," a different voice begged of her. This one was Irish, deep, and immensely familiar. Emma allowed her eyes to flutter open to _this_ voice; she trusted _this_ voice with all of her heart.

Emma sat up a little when she saw those beautiful blue eyes staring back at her. "Killian!" she exclaimed. She wrapped both of her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Hi, love," he responded, hugging her back. Emma ignored the trails of red-hot fire his hands left running down her spine and her arms. She didn't care about the pain. She needed this too much right now. She needed _him_ too much.

Emma laced her fingers together and placed them on the back of Killian's neck. She leaned in and pressed her lips gently to his, paying no attention to the painful fire that now danced on her lips, too.

Killian allowed his hook to rest on the ground and placed his good hand against the small of Emma's back as he kissed her back with all of his love.

For both, the kiss was comfort and the kiss was pain.

Killian had spent years of his life trying to kill the Dark One, and now he was in love with her. Madly in love.

And Emma, she wanted so badly for this to be her happy ending, right _here_ and right _now._ But she was so terrified of accidentally hurting Killian, of ruining the final piece in her happily-ever-after puzzle, that she was hurting _herself_ by accident, instead.

And that was nowhere near a real happy ending.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: "When is Emma going to reunite with her fqther. I hate how he's been sidelined in this story." – Guest Reviewer**

 **I know! I agree, and I'm sorry. This actually isn't the first complaint I've gotten about David's minute role in the story. But I promise he is coming up in the next few chapters, small part or not. I PROMISE. I've been planning how to fit him into the story so that it makes sense for a little while now. Thank you for your honesty, noble reviewer :)**

" **I like this story! It's different, in a good way. Kudos" – Guest Reviewer**

 **Thank you! I'm glad this story is being so well received so far!**

Emma was the first to draw back from the kiss. Her chest heaved from the lack of oxygen kissing had left her with. She removed her hands from the nape of Hook's neck and sat back down on the road. "What happened? Where're Mary Margaret and Henry and Regina? Where were _you_?" The questions came flowing out of Emma like a river of curiosity.

Hook laughed gently. "Slow down, love. Mary Margaret went back to take care of Neal, and Regina took Henry back to her place. She didn't want him to see what was happening to you."

"What?" Emma asked with a sense of urgency, her other questions temporarily forgotten. She couldn't remember _anything_ from the last few hours. "What was happening to me?"

Hook sighed. "I don't know. They said you started screaming as soon as you crossed the town line."

Emma's eyes lit up with realization. "Lily," she said quickly. "Lily told me that going back to Storybrooke could kill me." Although she knew this fact to be true, she couldn't help but wonder what would happen to the Dark One's magic if she died. At the moment, it was indestructible. Would it just be released, again, free to terrorize the town once more?

"Kill you? How, love?" Hook was obviously confused.

Emma furrowed her brows. "I don't know, exactly, but she said Good and Evil naturally fight each other. And I'm the Savior _and_ the Dark One; that's a lot of magic for one person to have. To sum up what Lily said, my body is quite apparently the battleground for the fight between Good and Evil. Between the Savior and the Dark One. Storybrooke just allows that fight to be harsher."

Emma watched as Hook put the pieces together in his mind. She could almost see the wheels turning as he worked it all out, that she was bound to be destroyed in some way, some form. That she was, essentially, fading away, ever so slowly.

After several minutes he looked back up at her, a pained expression twisting his beautiful features. "How much better is it for you to be out here? In the real world?"

Emma crossed her thin arms and shrugged. "A lot better, apparently," she admitted. Growing uncomfortable with their current topic of discussion, Emma decided to change the subject. "What have _you_ been doing?"

Hook appeared willing to comply with the change in conversation. "I've been looking for this damned Merlin the Sorcerer mentioned."

"Oh. Have you found him yet?"

"Yes, and no," he replied.

"What do you mean?" Emma was confused. How could you find someone, but not actually find them?

"Well…" Hook scratched at the back of his head. "It appears this 'Merlin' resides somewhere called Camelot, which is neither in Storybrooke, nor in this 'real' world that you are so familiar with."

Emma nodded her disappointed understanding. "You don't know where Camelot is or how to get there." She gave a loud groan.

"Aye, love. I'm sorry," he apologized.

"Don't be," Emma told him. It wasn't his fault, after all.

Emma gazed longingly at the empty stretch of road that contained the concealed world of Storybrooke. She _so_ wanted to go back in and resume her normal life again (not that it had been _that_ normal, but…).

But going back in would very likely be the death of her.

Why had she had to become the Dark One? Couldn't they have just left Rumple in his already dark ways and entrapped him, like what had been done back in the Enchanted Forest? Didn't he deserve it? He had betrayed them all; why should he get another chance while Emma suffered for him?

" _You sound a little angry, Dearie. Care to take some of that anger out?"_

 _No,_ Emma thought back bitterly. _I'm not doing_ anything _you say._

" _Oh, but you know what happens when you bottle up all that anger. It… explodes!"_

The image of a damaged and completely ruined Storybrooke, ashes smoking all around, flashed suddenly behind Emma's eyes. And there, in the middle of the ashes, stood Emma, smiling victoriously as if she had just won a contest. Emma could even feel the heat rising up from the embers. It felt so… real.

Emma gave a small gasp and scuttled back in surprise at the vivid picture still burning in her mind.

"Emma?" Killian's voice brought her back to reality. He gave her a concerned look. "Everything alright, love?"

Emma nodded quickly, though the action was insincere. "Yeah, I just…" She took in a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Her boyfriend looked unconvinced but left the subject alone.

" _That's what happens when the Dark One doesn't let off some steam from time to time,"_ the voice in her head warned her. _"Remember that image, Dearie."_


	22. Chapter 22: David

**A/N: Should I continue with this story? What do you think? Leave me a comment or PM me; I will decide whether or not to continue around Chapter 25.**

 **Anyway, this is the David chapter I've been working on and promising y'all. I put more work into this one than any other chapter I've written, so I hope it turned out well :)**

David strode silently down the main street of Storybrooke. Most of the shops and businesses lining the street were closed, and very few people milled about. Ever since word had spread about Emma, Storybrooke had become somewhat of a ghost town. Everyone stayed inside and minded their own business. It seemed that Storybrooke in its entirety, every soul residing there, every street and house and shop, loved Emma. Proof of this could be found in the fact that the town now felt empty and desolate without her. It truly seemed that Emma had touched every Storybrooke resident in some way or another.

David was on his way to switch out with Hook. He, the pirate, Mary Margaret, and Regina had a rotating schedule of Emma Watch (since she had to stay outside of Storybrooke and wasn't doing well in the first place), and it was his turn. David was looking forward to seeing his daughter again, Dark One or not. No. 'Looking forward to' wasn't quite the right terminology for his emotions; David was _ecstatic_. He could hardly contain himself; a brilliant smile was threatening to take over his entire face.

David picked up the pace and moved his feet faster until he was almost sprinting. He absolutely could not wait to see his baby girl again.

It took David around ten minutes of running to reach the town line, but it was well worth it when he finally sighted his daughter in the distance. He crossed the town line and handed Hook the scroll that would allow him to reenter Storybrooke. "You are officially relieved of Emma Duty," David informed the pirate. He glanced down at his sleeping daughter. "Is she tired?" he asked.

Hook allowed David to help him up. "In a sense," he replied in his rich, Irish accent. "This whole 'Dark One' thing seems to be taking a lot out of her."

David placed his hands against his hips. "Even out here? She doesn't have her magic, though."

The pirate looked him straight in the eye. "Aye, mate, she does."

David was taken aback. "How do you know?"

"We chatted a little before she started getting tired. She even showed me a little bit of what she can do. Her magic's weaker outside of Storybrooke, though," Killian answered.

Noticing that Emma looked a little uncomfortable sleeping on the hard ground, Killian removed his jacket and folded it into a neat square. He bent down and gingerly lifted his love's head so he could place his makeshift pillow underneath her. Emma shifted slightly at the movement but did not wake up. "She's all yours," Hook said once he was finished, turning back to Charming.

"I'll take good care of her," Charming assured him, sensing the other man's worry. He loved that Hook had so much concern for his daughter. It indicated to him that Killian would be a good man, who would take good care of his baby girl.

Killian left then, throwing frequent glances back at Emma, as if he feared she would become injured in the time it took him to walk away. The image of her and her father became smaller and smaller every time he looked back.

* * *

Emma opened her green eyes about half an hour after Hook's departure. David had noticed once how every time he saw Emma, her eyes seemed to be a different shade of green. Currently, they were on the darker side, almost a cross between olive green and forest green.

Emma blinked to clear her vision and lifted her head from Hook's coat. "David?" she asked. "What are you doing here? Where's Hook?"

"I wanted to see you, Emma, believe it or not. And we decided someone should be with you constantly; it's my turn."

"Who? _Who_ decided?" Emma was a little miffed that people thought she needed to be monitored like a small child.

Realizing his daughter was upset, David said, "Emma, we just didn't want you to be alone. Hook, Regina, your mother, and I are switching out to keep you company."

Emma's anger dissipated at this. "Oh." She propped herself up by her elbows but found the position to be uncomfortable because of the hard ground beneath her, so she opted for sitting crisscross-applesauce. David lowered himself down onto the ground beside her. He wanted to tell her how much he had missed her and how she had been nearly the only thing on his mind since she'd left, but David knew his daughter wasn't the emotional type. He wanted to ask her how she was holding up, too, both physically and emotionally, but she also wasn't one to answer questions about herself. He knew she would prefer it if he said nothing at all, even though _he_ didn't prefer it. So David settled for a simple gesture that he knew would say all he wanted to, to Emma. He wrapped his arm both protectively and lovingly around her shoulders and reassuringly rubbed her arm up and down with his hand. _I'm here always,_ it said. _I love you,_ it said.

Somehow, David's touch left Emma feeling less pain than with the others. It wasn't that she loved him any less than them. No, that wasn't it. It was more like her trust, her faith, in him was stronger.

He was the only one she truly knew would not turn his back on her because she had become the new Dark One.

Emma leaned into David and rested her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Dad," she whispered into the night.

David pressed his lips to her silky hair. At that moment, he knew they would be able to pull Emma out of this. He didn't know how, but they would.


	23. Chapter 23: Fly away, Swan

**A/N: I'm still debating whether I should continue this story. What do you guys think?**

After a while, Emma lifted her head from David's shoulder, a pressing matter on her mind. "David," she said with a sigh. "As fun as it is to sit right on the edge of Storybrooke, the people at the hospital are probably looking for me. You know, escaped mental patient and all." Emma rubbed at her forehead with the palm of her hand. Her head was still pounding from earlier. "I think I need to move this somewhere else."

"But-" David protested. " _Where_ would we _go_?"'

"David," Emma said, an apologetic look on her face. She tilted her head slightly to the side as if she were about to deliver upsetting news, which she was. "Not 'we.' _Me._ I'm going alone." She said this with as much seriousness and conviction as she could muster.

"Emma!" David exclaimed, sounding like he was about to reprimand a child who had knocked over lamp. "You need to take _someone_ with you. Take me; your mom and Regina can look after Storybrooke."

Emma pushed stray hair from her eyes. "You know Regina is only good at keeping people at bay when she's in 'Evil Queen' mode. And Mary Margaret would be too focused on Neal to do anything else."

"Take Hook, then," David suggested, accepting that he would not be the one to go.

"Dad. I don't want to take _anyone_." Emma paused to draw in a deep breath. "I don't want to hurt anyone; that's why," she admitted.

"Emma, you _won't_ hurt anyone," David assured her.

Emma nodded. "That's true; _I_ won't, but Dark Emma _might._ I can't risk that." An idea popped into Emma's mind of how to explain her opposition to taking someone with her. "Imagine you had all these confusing thoughts and emotions, and you were terrified that they would make you hurt someone. Wouldn't _you_ want to keep Mary Margaret and Neal away from you? Wouldn't _you_ want to make sure everyone you cared about was safe?"

David nodded at the pavement in defeat. His daughter made a good argument. "I'd be afraid of hurting you, too, not just your mother and Neal," he admitted. "I don't like this, but I see where you're coming from."

Emma pushed herself to her feet and held out her hand. "Before I go, give me your sword, really quick."

"What?" David was surprised by this request. "Why?"

"Just give it to me. Please."

David pulled his sword out of its sheath. "Okay…" He handed her the sword.

In one swift, fluid motion, Emma flipped her hair over her shoulder and drew the sword across her blond mane. Locks of golden hair fluttered to the ground.

David was shocked. "Emma, what- what are you doing?"

His daughter stood before him, looking defiant as ever in her new shoulder-length haircut. "I'm leaving now," she informed him. Then, as an explanation, she added, "I need to look different if I don't want to get caught."

Emma began walking away. "Emma, wait!" David called after her. She turned, and he tossed her his cell. Emma caught it with ease; he guessed her reflexes were better with the Dark One in her. "Take this. I love you."

Emma smiled gently at him. "You, too," she replied before jogging away.

* * *

When Regina arrived for her turn at Emma Watch, David was sitting on the grass alone.

"Where's Emma?" Regina asked, a hint of anger present in her voice.

"I let her leave," David admitted sadly.

"You _what?"_ Disbelief, not anger, now came through in her voice. She crossed her arms threateningly. "You let her _go?_ "

"She made a compelling argument. She said the hospital was probably out looking for her, and she couldn't be in one place for too long."

Regina pressed her face into her hands. "Hold on; this is too much right now." She breathed in deeply, then began to yell. "You let her leave _alone?_ How stupid _are_ you? We just found her, David! I am _not_ willing to go off on another Emma hunt!"

"She didn't want to hurt any of us!" David shouted back at her.

Regina threw her hands up in the air. "She hasn't hurt any of us _yet_! Doesn't that say _something?_ " She shook her head, seeming more and more like "Evil Queen" Regina and less like "nice" Regina each passing moment. "We have to go after her," she declared. "How long ago did she leave?"

"About half an hour ago." David was starting to realize why it could be bad to leave Emma by herself. What if she couldn't figure out how to fix the Dark One problem, and something horrible happened? David couldn't allow it.

Regina pressed her fingers to her temples and shut her eyes, clearly indicating that she was annoyed. "Okay, I'll get the car. If she took the road, we should be able to catch up to her fairly quickly."

"I'll be here when you get back," David said from his spot on the ground.

"I know!" Regina called behind her as she reentered Storybrooke.


	24. Chapter 24: Emma Lost, Emma Found

"Emma!" David shouted, sticking his head out of Regina's sleek Mercedes. "Emma, where are you?!"

"David, you're not a dog. Get your head back in the car," Regina said, frustrated.

David pulled himself back into the comfort of the expensive car. "We need to call for Emma so she can hear us."

Regina glanced at Charming, who reminded her a _lot_ of Emma. Emma must have gotten a lot of her features and traits from him; like David, Emma was brave and guarded. Plus, they both looked so similar, with the blond hair and light eyes and all. "You know she won't answer even if she does hear us," Regina told David. "Emma's trying to _escape,_ not come running back home like a lost puppy."

"I know, but anything that has a shot at working is worth trying when it comes to Emma."

Regina spotted something in the distance. "Hey, is that her?" she asked, rapidly jabbing David in the shoulder to grab his attention. David slowly turned his head in the direction Regina was pointing and leaned forward, squinting, as far as he could.

"Yeah!" he confirmed. "That's definitely Emma."

Regina pulled the car alongside Emma and rolled down her window. "Get in the car, Swan," she commanded harshly.

Emma stared back at Regina, dumbstruck. "H-how'd you find me?" she stuttered, then leaned sideways as she noticed her father seated beside Regina. "David?" Emma said. The downward turn of her lips and the way she cast her eyes down at the ground indicated that she felt betrayed. "You led her to me?" Even her voice sounded defeated.

Regina crossed her arms. "Swan, it's not hard to find someone who follows a straight road." She frowned at Emma. "Where's the rest of your hair?"

Emma ran her fingers through her newly-cut hair and was slightly stunned when she ran out of hair. "I, uh, I cut it. I needed to look different from how I did in the hospital."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Fine. Emma, get in the car."

"No; I won't." Emma turned and walked away in her brown leather jacket, which was acting as a substitute for her red one until she could get it back. Regina simply allowed the car to roll slowly beside Emma, easily matching her snail's pace. "Nobody's letting you go anywhere alone, Emma." Emma ignored her and continued walking away. "Emma!" Regina demanded. "Get in the car, _now."_

Emma whirled around. "So you guys _are_ watching me like I'm a child!" she said furiously. "Let me tell you something: I survived the first twenty-eight years of my life without anyone else, and I can survive the rest without, too!" Emma took in a deep breath, but it did nothing to appease her anger. "I'm more capable and dangerous than the two of you combined. I don't need you."

"Emma," David spoke in his smooth, calm tone. "We're not trying to make you feel like you're incapable of handling yourself. We only want to make sure you're not alone again, Emma. We all love you. Mary Margaret, Hook, Neal, me, Henry, and even Regina. You have a family; why leave that?"

Emma glanced back and forth between Regina and her father. "I already told you why."

David stepped out of the car and made his way to the side of the car Emma stood on. With each step David took in Emma's direction, Emma took a step further away. David could see from his daughter's frightened expression that she was afraid of _herself._ David felt like he was living in the past again, when the Ice Queen had been in Storybrooke and Emma's powers had spiraled out of control because she had felt she was a threat to others. David called out softly to his daughter, trying to assure her that he wasn't afraid of her.

Emma's silent tears shone and glinted in the moonlight as they rolled down her cheeks. "I don't want to hurt you," she choked out, tucking her hands into her sides as if she felt the action would keep her magic at bay. She continued backing away as David tried to approach her.

"You haven't, and you won't," David replied slowly.

David knew then that the only way he was going to get Emma to come back with them was if he got her himself. He picked up the pace from a walk to a jog, and Emma broke into a run. Emma was fast; she maneuvered the dark forest- fallen trees, logs, and all- with ease. David was faster, though. He caught up with her fairly quickly and grabbed her from behind. Emma struggled to free herself, but David was also stronger than her.

"Let me go!" she demanded, but it lacked conviction.

David spun Emma around in his arms and hugged her like he always did: he placed one hand securely against Emma's back and cradled her head with his other hand. He swayed her a little, like he would've done when she was a baby.

Arms pressed against her father's chest, Emma finally let herself cry for real. She cried genuinely like she'd wanted to for years and years. In the middle of the woods, Emma knew the only one who'd hear her cry was her father, and she knew he would keep her weakness a secret.

David ran his fingers through Emma's short hair while she sobbed into his chest. He'd never known Emma to be like this, even when her own life was in jeopardy.

Which meant she really _was_ terrified for the rest of the group.

After a little while, he pushed his daughter slightly away from him, far enough so he could reach out and gently wipe the tears from her face. Again, Emma felt the sting that came from the touches of her loved ones, and again, her father's touch hurt less than the rest.

Even though Emma knew David wouldn't ever leave her, she gripped his arm tightly while he ran his thumb along her cheeks.

* * *

David took his daughter's hand and led her through the woods, across the street, and to the car, like he would've done when she was a kid. He set her in the seat of the car and made sure she was safe, like he would've done when she was a kid, except in a carriage rather than a car.

He climbed in _beside_ her, like he would've loved to do when she was a kid."Where to?" David asked his daughter.

Regina whirled around in her seat. "David!" she scolded him. "Don't give her false hope; you know where we're going. Back to the town line."

"Let Emma answer," David replied.

Regina glanced at the blonde woman in her backseat and raised her eyebrows in question. Emma nodded at the floor in agreement, her short, blond curls bobbing up and down. "Back to the town line," she echoed, "but I want to dye my hair and buy colored contacts tomorrow. Those are my conditions."

Regina lowered her eyebrows. "Very well, Swan."


	25. Chapter 25: Changes are Coming

**A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update… I just stared back to school recently, and WOW, I had forgotten how much homework teachers like to give! I will try to update weekly, but please understand… school is hard :) But here it is; I present… Chapter 25!**

David stood behind his daughter, both in the literal and figurative sense of the term, as the hairdresser dyed Emma's golden locks a dark, nearly black hue. They had already bought her chocolate colored contacts earlier that day, so her dark eyes matched her hair. Emma now seemed to truly embody the Dark One.

When the hairdresser was finished, Emma tousled her raven strands and twisted a few of them around her fingers. "I don't even look like myself anymore," Emma noted at the mirror. Her tone was flat, monotonous. David couldn't tell whether this was a good or bad thing. Emma lifted an exploratory finger underneath her eye, watching the mirror Emma do the same. "Dark eyes hold a lot more secrets," she said, somewhat distractedly.

David's eyes met Emma's in the mirror. A flicker of guilt shimmered underneath her contacts, and she quickly broke the gaze and looked down at the table.

* * *

The freshly unrecognizable Swan stood on the edge of the town line, outside the town, not for choice, but bare necessity. She could feel her son staring at her through the barrier. Her _son._ It never failed to amaze her that she had a son. It was something terrifying and exciting all wrapped up into one. Emma still sometimes felt like she was failing at motherhood.

On the other side of the line, Henry watched his mother stare at an empty stretch of road. It is hard not to have a family, but surely it is harder to know you have one and be separated from them. Henry toed the line with his boot. "Can I go? Please?"

Regina sighed beside him, watching Emma rather placidly through the town line with him. "She doesn't want to hurt you."

Emma was normally bursting at the seams with confidence and self-assurance, but now, rail-thin, forced to change her looks for safety, and searching desperately to find something to _see_ besides an endless expanse of road, she just looked lost.

"She doesn't want to hurt you, either. Besides, look at her; can't you see it? She's still fighting it. She's safe. It's when she stops resisting that we have to worry."

"Fine." Regina grabbed her son's hand and pulled him through the barrier behind her.

Emma watched Regina emerge from nothingness; had she not seen this sight before, she might have thought it was God, coming to inform her of the most important and alarming of matters.

As soon as she saw Henry step out behind her, Emma folded her arms into her sides and shot her stare at the ground. Henry saw Emma's response and stood awkwardly several feet away from her, suddenly regretting his decision to cross the line.

"Charming," Regina targeted at a sleeping David. "Rise and shine, honeybunch. Time to go."

David stirred and awoke from his sleep. He said nothing, just walked over to Emma, placed a kiss on the top of her head, took the scroll from Regina, and left.

"You look different," Regina casually acknowledged Emma. The former blonde remained silent and expressionless. "You look like someone took Mary Margaret and me and smushed us together." She laughed at her own joke. " _There's_ an idea."

Emma chewed the inside of her cheek. Regina sighed again. "Henry, go exploring," she directed the boy. Henry nodded and headed into the woods. "Keep track of the time; be back at three!" she called after him.

Once Henry was out of earshot, Regina turned to Emma, hands on hips. "He's _your_ son, too."

"I told you not to bring him out here," was Emma's response.

Regina could see that every fiber of Emma was on high alert, her posture rigid, her body tensed, her face carefully guarded. "Let's go for a run," she suggested, changing the subject.

"I don't run," Emma replied, shrugging.

"Neither do I, but we do now." Regina took off running down the road before Emma could say anything else. Emma had no choice but to be alone or run after the other woman, so she ran. Regina obviously knew Emma was trailing behind her but didn't slow in the slightest.

Emma's feet pounded the road beneath her. Her untrained lungs grew tired after only a couple minutes, and breathing became a long, painful, drawn-out ordeal. She struggled for air. Her chest heaved and burned with the effort, but it was a fresh feeling, a welcomed change to distract her from the achy soreness that plagued her almost constantly.

Running was freeing. It loosened the hold of Emma's problems, and they floated away like balloons as Emma focused all of her thoughts on energies on increasing her speed.

By the time Emma had caught her second wind, she felt like she was running on air. She could still feel the Dark One lurking inside of her and her powers swirling with it, but she channeled those into the simple lightness of running. Before she knew it, Emma was running like the wind. Hell, Emma _was_ the wind. Her feet took her at an un-human speed down the road, leaving Storybrooke behind. The further away she got, the better she felt.

Regina's voice broke her concentration and shattered the thoughtless peace she had been experiencing. All of Emma's burdens dropped back down onto her and pressed on her mind once more. "We have to go back; it's getting close to three. Henry-"

At hearing Henry's name, Emma skidded to a halt, and lightning struck and danced directly in front of her. It wasn't Emma's fault; she didn't do it on purpose. Hearing her son's name just turned her into a nervous ball of energy. The bolt of lightning did surprise Regina enough to stop midsentence, though. She stood there for a moment, staring, then shook herself out of her stupor and finished her thought: "Henry will be waiting for us."

Emma turned silently in response and ran back for Storybrooke. On the way back, she reflected on what was actually causing her to feel so heavy, and burdened, and stressed. Being the Dark One may have been draining physically, but Emma had determined that it didn't have to be _emotionally_ , too. It was the fact that she cared so much about doing the right thing that was bringing her down, and she needed to fix that.

"Hey," Henry greeted his two mothers when they returned from the run.

Emma stared, stony-faced, back at him. She pointed at the town line right as Mary Margaret appeared, scroll in hand. Before she started doing anything or making any new decisions, she needed to get the person she loved most out of the way. "Just go," she said to him, honestly and bluntly. "I can't be with you."

Henry looked shocked and hurt by this, but he accepted the scroll from his grandmother nonetheless and followed Emma's orders. He retreated over the town line along with his other mother, back into the overwhelming safety of Storybrooke.


	26. Chapter 26

**Here's Chapter 26! I will try to post another chapter this weekend to make up for the ones I've missed, but no promises…**

 **P.S. Be on the lookout for a certain dragon named Lily!**

It was an awkward two hours Emma spent with her mother. The two of them sat in absolute silence. It was so silent that even the crickets refused to chirp, the birds refused to tweet, and the wind refused to blow. Emma could swear she could hear the library clock ticking off in the distance, even through the heavy cloaking spell. _Tick, tick, tick,_ it reminded her. _Time runs out._

Mary Margaret let out an uncomfortable sigh from beside Emma. She drummed her fingers against the paved road. She crossed her legs. She uncrossed her legs. She crossed them again. She adjusted her sweater. She sighed again. She ran a hand over her hair. She uncrossed her legs.

Emma watched her mother quietly. A swell of anguish swept over her and clung to the edges of her heart and her soul. Her mother was disappointed in her; she could tell. Miss Snow White put so much faith into the goodness of people that she hadn't stopped to think about her daughter actually _being_ the Dark One. Emma was sure she could see the regret distorting her mother's face, lurking just underneath the surface. _Shouldn't've saved Emma. Shouldn't've saved Emma._

Mary Margaret's eyes traveled the length of the forest. They looked at the trees. They took in the endless expanse of blue sky. They searched for the end of the road. They looked everywhere except at Emma.

 _Look at me, Mom. I'm still your daughter. "Dark One" doesn't mean I'm evil any more than "Snow White" means you're good._

But Mary Margaret refused to look at her. It was too difficult for her to grasp that her perfect little girl could've gone dark. Deep inside her heart, Mary Margaret felt a sense of betrayal. She didn't know whether Emma had betrayed her or the world had, but either way, it made it painful physically to look at her daughter. The feeling was always tugging at her mind, like a distant memory, just near enough to serve as a reminder of the unfairness of the whole situation.

 _Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick._

Mary Margaret swore she could hear that clock, too.

 _Tick._

In one quick, swift motion, before the clock could tick again,Emma was on her feet and had swiped the scroll from Mary Margaret's hand. Before her mother could react, Emma hurled herself over the town line into Storybrooke, leaving Mary Margaret abandoned in the dust.

Suddenly, a hollow ringing, much like a cowbell, filled Emma's ears. It was unbearable. Emma's hands shot up to block the noise. She screamed to cover it, but it was still there. She screamed louder, Louder, LOUDER. The louder she screamed, the louder the noise became. Her thoughts crashed into each other. Her body shook.

Apparently her commotion was attracting quite a lot of attention. Belle approached the Dark Savior cautiously. Her golden dress dragged across the ground as she patiently picked her way over to Emma. Emma's screaming was inhuman and heart-wrenching, but Belle was no stranger to the inhuman. "Emma- " she called out softly to the other woman.

Belle caught Emma right as she collapsed to her knees, hands still over her ears.

"Emma," Belle said forcefully. "Emma." She tore the other woman's hands from her ears. "Emma, you need to listen to me," Belle insisted.

Emma curled up tightly on the ground, shuddering. Belle laid a hand on her shoulder to shake her. But as soon as her hand contacted Emma's jacket, flashes jumped before Belle's eyes.

Emma's memories. Belle was reliving them with her.

Belle watched as Emma's first family returned her at the age of three. She watched _Emma_ watch the only people she'd loved leave her in the dust, her white blanket clutched in her tiny hands. Belle could feel the rough fabric as toddler Emma stroked her blanket, the only possession that was truly hers, while the family's car became a tiny dot in the distance. She felt Emma's confusion over why the family that had loved her and cared for her for as long as she could remember would leave her.

She watched Emma being harassed by the girls in jail. She watched Emma hand her baby boy over to a complete stranger, who walked the baby out of the room and out of Emma's life. She felt the crushing pain of Emma losing her last chance at a family, the sensation of the heart being ripped out of the chest and tossed across the room into the wastebasket. Belle saw it all. She felt it all.

She also saw Neal as the life drained from his eyes, as the vitality fled from his body. She felt Emma's rage over only having him back for a short time. She felt Emma's reluctance and resistance as somebody pried Neal's limp body out of Emma's arms.

There were no good memories here. They were all of the most awful, horrendous things that had happened to Emma. The Dark One in Emma was teaching her to look at life like one long string of disappointments. That's the thing about true evil: it requires motivation. Evil replays bad memories over and over, working up its steam and examining every nook and cranny of the memory for a person to blame, a person to take it all out on. Evil takes its anger out on anyone and harms anyone to bring a smile to its face.

But true evil plots its revenge, like a masterpiece, only for those who deserve it.

Or, rather, those who they _think_ deserve it.

And then, suddenly, it was over. Belle fell beside Emma, who was now sobbing, in a heap. Belle took a deep breath, willing herself to push past all she'd just saw, and slowly gathered herself into a kneeling position. She allowed herself a moment to recover.

Once she was right again, Belle grabbed Emma's arm and pulled her up from the dirt. She reached over and grasped Emma's other arm as well, so the brunette would not be tempted to fall back onto the earth. "Emma." Belle gave Emma a gentle, "snap-out-of-it," shake. Emma continued to sob anyway. Belle tried to meet Emma's eyes, but every time she moved her head one way, Emma moved hers the other to avoid her gaze. Belle's arms shook with each sob that racked Emma's body. Belle sighed lightly. "You've been through rough times," Belle admitted. "This whole thing happening is just unimaginable; there's no denying that. But you have to remember-" Belle's sentence was cut off by a violent shaking of Emma's head, as if to force all of the bad thoughts to go flying from her mind. Belle took a deep breath once Emma had finished and continued on. "But you have to remember all of the good things, too. They aren't half as good without bad memories to make them better." Emma finally lifted her eyes to Belle's light blue ones. "Let's make a list of all the good things, OK?" Emma nodded slowly. Belle pulled an ink pen from her boot and rolled up Emma's sleeve. "Number one," she said, writing on Emma's arm as she spoke. "Henry."

Emma rubbed her thumb over the name, indicating that it brought her great comfort. "Number two. Mary Margaret and David." Belle handed Emma the pen and allowed her to continue the list.

 _#3,_ Emma wrote, _Hook._

 _#4,_ Emma wrote, _Finally being friends and not enemies with Regina._

 _#5,_ Emma wrote, _My_ permanent _home: Storybrooke._

Emma paused before writing, underneath it all:

 _#6- A second chance._

Emma stared at her inked arm for a long while. Finally, Belle tenderly tugged Emma's sleeve back down over her arm. Belle said, "It's there when you need it. If it gets rubbed off, write it back on. If it gets washed off, write it back on. If that arm gets chopped off, write it on the other arm, because those things are still yours, even when everything else isn't."


	27. Chapter 27: Summon Rumple

**A/N: Sooo, I know this is super duper short, but I just wanted to get another chapter out this weekend. Maybe more will come soon, maybe not; it depends on how busy I am. Haha, it might be two hours until the next chapter, or it might be two weeks. It all depends. Go ahead and leave a review; I love hearing what you think (even if you tell me you don't like the story)! I appreciate all reviews, and I will work to make the next chapter extra long… XOXO**

A lot of coaxing, pleading, and begging had been necessary to send Emma back over the town line. There had been one, and only one, very, very specific reason as to why she was willing to go back to the boring stretch of empty road. "Why can't I just stay here and wait it out?" Emma had asked, still shaking a little from her earlier experience. It had been about half an hour since she'd crossed the town line, and people who had spotted her were trying to get her on the other side, some from fear _of_ her and others from fear _for_ her. "We're never going to find a solution, anyway," she'd added as an afterthought, to which the small group of people had immediately responded, "No, _no_ , of _course_ we will. Just hang in there."

"I want to talk to Rumple," Emma had declared, throwing her chin up defiantly as best she could in her wobbly state. The action sent her staggering back a step, and Belle grabbed her arm to keep her from falling.

Glances were exchanged among the group, and a chatter arose. "Nobody's seen Rumplestiltskin since they took the Darkness out of him," someone said quietly. "Is he alive?"

"Of course he's alive!" someone else responded. "Belle has seen him! They're a couple."

"What if he's worse than he was before?" a voice questioned the crowd.

"What could he do now? He's powerless."

"Maybe not-"

"Why would she want to talk to him, anyway? What could he do for her?"

"They could plot to kill us-"

"Revenge-"

"Death for all-"

"Torture-"

"Hello, Dearies." The chilling voice descended on the crowd and hushed them as if they were coated in a blanket of snow. The crowd slowly parted, allowing him a pathway to Emma. A cane steadied his step, the solid material making an ominous _tap, tap,_ tapping each time he brought his left foot to the ground. Rumple offered Emma a sardonic smile.

"You called."


	28. Chapter 28: Camelot

**Heyy guys! Sorry I have been rather inconsistent about the frequency of my posts. Rest assured, I am going to try to update at least a few times over the next week. Also~ we will be wrapping up this story soon so I can start a new (better) one.**

 **Thanks so much for all the support!**

Emma turned the small bean over with her fingers. It was completely smooth, except for a small nick on one side. The more she rubbed that little indentation with her thumb, the larger it became. Yet she kept rubbing it because the motion was reassuring to her.

Emma felt a lot like that tiny bean. She was trying to cover up her own imperfections so that her family didn't see how difficult it was to be Emma and The Dark One, The Dark One and Emma. And she sometimes just wanted them to leave her alone, but they kept coming back and expecting her to be exactly the same as she had been, and every time they came back, she got a little bit worse and had to hide even more of herself. Just like Emma couldn't stop rubbing that stupid bean between her fingers for her own comfort, her family couldn't stop expecting her to be something she wasn't.

This is why she couldn't decide whether or not to face alone the terrifying thought of this Merlin who could apparently take away all of her problems.

She knew her family was there for her, yes. She knew they would never leave her and that they would always try to understand if she messed up. But that was the thing. They _didn't_ understand. They _couldn't,_ no matter how hard they tried.

"Did you decide, Miss Swan?" Rumplestiltskin's voice made Emma jump. It was gentle, solely inquisitive, but the words held more weight than he knew.

Emma swallowed. She turned the bean over once more in the palm of her hand.

"Everyone's waiting, Miss Swan. They'll understand, no matter what you decide."

 _No they won't. They'll always be there, but they will never understand._

Emma accepted the scroll Rumple offered her and stepped over the town line. She needed to get used to the pain of magic if she wanted to go to Camelot.

In Storybrooke, every member of the town stood right near the town line, waiting for Emma. This was a big moment, sending her off to Camelot, and they all wanted a chance to show their appreciation for her in case she never came back. Dark One or not, they all knew none of them would exist at that moment if it hadn't have been for Emma saving them more times than they could count.

Emma made eye contact with the members of her family: Henry, Hook, David, Mary Margaret, and Regina. She would give her life (which she kind of had) for anyone in this town, but she didn't _care_ about them. They were a separate entity, more important to Emma than her own life but somehow not important. Her family, she _cared_ about. Her and her family were all in this together, whether her family understood her or not.

She dropped Rumple's magic bean on the ground. She stepped in. She saw her family advancing toward the hole to follow her down to the literal ends of the Earth.

The next thing Emma knew, she was on her knees in the grass. Surprisingly, the only side effect of being in a magical realm that she was currently experiencing was a ringing in her ears.

Mary Margaret was behind her, brushing grass off of her jeans, and Regina was attempting to pull herself into a standing position beside her.

"Well," breathed Mary Margaret, "the grass is a lot softer for a landing than concrete."

Regina gave Mary Margaret's attempt at a joke a pity chuckle, but no one else laughed.

David stood up, using a tree for support. "What is this place?" He had agreed to come with Emma without caring where he was actually going.

"Camelot," Emma responded, slightly shocked that they were so close to the end. Her heart fluttered in her chest, and butterflies danced lightly in her stomach. They were _so close._ They could stop this before anything became too serious. Before she made a mistake so monumental that it couldn't be fixed. "Merlin lives in Camelot," she said, so incredibly shocked that she couldn't even convey her emotions. Her voice came out in a monotone.

"Great," said Regina, sarcastically, perching her hands on her hips. "How do we find him?"

"How about that?" Henry pointed at an arrow-shaped sign that said, "To Merlin".

The group exchanged wary glances.

"Well, _that_ was almost too easy," Regina said.

"Should we…?" asked Mary Margaret.

"I don't see why not. We don't have anything else to go by," David said.

"He's right," Lily affirmed from the back.

Everyone jumped at the sound of Lily's voice.

"What are you doing here?" Emma asked Lily slowly, spinning around to face the brunette. Lily wasn't supposed to come. It was only supposed to be the people that Emma had been through thick and thin, thin and thick with. Lily was, well, Lily was like an old friend you only see at high school reunions. "We didn't- you weren't-" Emma stuttered.

"I followed you through the vortex portal thingy." Lily shrugged as if it were obvious, then started heading down the dirt road toward Camelot. "Camelot will be here forever, but Emma won't! Let's bounce, Charmings!" she called behind her.

Regina was appalled. "I am _not_ a Charming!" she responded defensively.

Mary Margaret jabbed her in the back. "Just move," she whispered through gritted teeth.

Emma watched her own feet, dragging step by dragging step, as she made her way down the road. "There's no way it can be this easy after _this_ long," she muttered. "This is ridiculous. It makes us seem like we've been doing nothing but sitting on our asses for the past however long."

"You just have to have faith," said Mary Margaret. "Life can be easy sometimes, and you need to learn that not everything has to involve suffering."

It was like her mother didn't even know how to talk to her anymore.

"Mom-" Emma tried. "Not everything is cut-and-dry. Sometimes you have to look out for the unexpected and be ready for it."

Mary Margaret stopped walking. "Look, Emma. I know I haven't been handling this whole situation quite like I should, but I am trying. I'm accepting you, so please accept me."

Emma gritted her teeth. Her mom wasn't accepting _her_. Her mom was accepting the fact that her daughter was gone to the darkness. Emma could see this in the melancholy expression she received from Mary Margaret every time they made eye contact. And, for some reason, this gave Emma an unreasonable and unbearable mix of anger and sadness.

"You know what-" Emma's feelings could turn on a dime, and currently she had gone from wanting her family with her to wanting her family as far away from her as possible. With a wave of her hand, she disappeared from the group and reappeared a couple miles down the dirt road so that she could be alone with her thoughts.


	29. Chapter 29

**Do you guys think we should be wrapping this story up soon? I do. I was thinking around chapter 35 would be a good time to stop; what do you think? Leave me a comment! I hope you have been enjoying the story so far, if not, that's okay! Please keep in mind that I AM new at this "writing stories" thing!**

 **Luv ya!**

The forest on either side of the dirt road was overwhelmingly green. There were so many different shades of green that Emma couldn't count with her fingers and toes how many there were; even if she used her eyelashes to count, too, she would still run out of objects to count on. Jade, olive, forest, avocado, chartreuse, pistachio, fern. It was so much that, as Emma passed along the road, she couldn't help but use her magic to add some reds and oranges and yellows to the mix.

The trees also seemed to stretch on forever into the blue sky. The only way Emma could see the tops of the trees was if she craned her neck as far back as it would go and took several steps backward until she was at the edge of the wide road. Even being the Dark One, Emma was intimidated. The massive size of the trees reminded her that she hadn't always been this powerful.

Emma found herself wondering what it would be like to climb one of the trees and hop from treetop to treetop up in the clouds. Certainly, being the Dark One didn't have to be _all_ evil, did it?

Emma blinked – a simple motion – and suddenly she found herself perched atop one of the trees in the forest. It was accidental, getting up onto the treetop; Emma hadn't learned to separate her powers from her wants yet.

She adjusted herself into a sitting position. The bark of the tree was itchy and rough against her skin, but the leaves were soft like satin. She pulled one of the leaves from its branch and gently placed it in her jeans pocket, hoping it would be as relaxing to pass between her fingers as the magic bean had.

The tree she sat on was so enormous that Emma could see everything in all directions for miles around. Directly ahead was an obviously humongous castle that was dwarfed by the amount of distance between it and Emma. To her, it looked to be no more than the size of a horsefly. Emma assumed that the stone castle was where Merlin resided; he was an all-powerful sorcerer, after all. He could have a castle if he wanted. _She_ could have a castle if she wanted. With servants, and home cooked meals, and four-poster beds, and people who submitted to her every whim and will…

 _No._

Emma shook the thought off. She didn't need a castle; she needed to destroy the darkness.

But it would be _so easy_ to just give in. She could live in comfort, doing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. Nobody would be able to hurt her because she would hurt them _first._

Emma shook her head again, more violently this time. She wasn't sure where all of these thoughts were coming from, but it was unnerving that not only was she having them, but she was _liking_ them, too.

 _What about your mother?_ her mind prompted her.

Mary Margaret. The two of them had been so close when they were just roommates and not mother and daughter, and as mother and daughter they had grown even closer. But a crack had grown into their relationship when Emma had found out what she and David had done to remove the Darkness from her. Their plan hadn't even panned out in the long run; Emma was the Dark One now. Wouldn't it have been better for Emma to have a little of the darkness in her, rather than _all_ of it?

As Emma thought more and more about Mary Margaret, she began to realize just why things weren't working. Mary Margaret had worked so hard to make Emma good, to save her. She had stolen a _dragon's_ child and put Emma's darkness into that egg. She had given up Emma, her only baby, to save her from the curse and give her the best shot at life that she could possibly have. She had let Emma go yet again when Pan's curse was ravaging Storybrooke because Henry would be left all alone, and Mary Margaret knew he needed his mother more than she needed her daughter. And now, well, Emma was the Dark One. Emma was in pieces. Emma was the polar opposite of what they'd worked so hard to make her.

Mary Margaret probably looked at Emma and saw one long string of mistakes and disappointments; _that's_ why it wasn't working.

The solution? One of them had to go, and the darkest corners of Emma's mind assured her it wouldn't be her that went.

Emma was finally able to pull herself free of these thoughts after several minutes. She decided to focus on the scenery instead; maybe it would help her keep her mind completely blank.

Behind her, the forest ran up and down and over the hills. Some of the trees in the forest preferred their space and so there were large gaps where there were no trees, but others were sociable and, in some spaces, trees were crowded so close together that you couldn't fit your pinky finger in between two trees if you tried.

To her left and right, there were mountains, which led Emma to conclude that she was in a valley. Emma thought the mountains looked like vicious, relentless beasts with the way their sharp, jagged teeth tore into the sky. She hated the level of contrast between the sky and the mountains, like they refused to work together, to be friends, to even tolerate each other.

Everything Emma saw around her in some way made her think of her relationship with her family. She hated that they were so eager to "fix" her; they couldn't just step back and let her be Emma the Dark One for one second. They thought she would royally screw up if they left her alone. And maybe she would. But that was Emma's problem, not theirs.

Every time Emma thought back to her mother again, her anger swelled up once more. Mary Margaret was a pure soul, and she lived by the idea that people can change on their own. Emma, however, knew the opposite to be true: something infinitely more powerful than you can always take away your free will, the will that makes you want to be better.

Even turning the trees different colors and popping up on treetops was a delicious taste of what Emma could do, and she found herself wanting to do more.

Magic was fun. Magic was the force Emma couldn't fight.

Back in the group, the five of them trudged along. All of them had grown used to driving cars for transportation or, since Storybrooke was so quaint, making short walks, so this lengthy hike was difficult for them.

"Did anyone think to bring the dagger?" Lily finally said from the front.

Mary Margaret stopped dead in her tracks. She pressed her palm to her face. " _No._ No, no, no, no!" She turned to David, upset. "David, how could we forget that?"

David shook his head in disappointment. "I-I don't know."

"Relax," said Lily before they became too ashamed of themselves. She pulled the shiny dagger out from her boot and offered it to David. David reached for it, but Lily pulled it away before he could grab it. "I grabbed it knowing _you_ wouldn't. See? This is why you need me. You all rush into things without thinking, and that always makes things _harder._ So I'm holding onto this for now." She stuffed the dagger back into her boot.

There was a short silence. Then, Mary Margaret breathed a slow sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God. Thank you, Lily. Now we can be sure Emma won't be able to pull anything."

Still sitting on the top of the tree, wounded by her mother's lack of faith in her, Emma's head snapped up as she overheard this statement. Her anger surged once more.


	30. Chapter 30: Upon Arrival

Emma had rejoined the group, but she walked sulkily behind. It was hard enough not trusting herself, but add an untrusting family to the mix and the situation suddenly became a million times more awful.

The sun was starting to dip behind the clouds. Swirls of orange, red, pink, and blue crossed the sky and broke up the extreme greenness of the forest. David glanced at the sky. "Maybe we should set up camp for the night."

Everyone nodded their consent, except for Emma. "No," she spoke up. "I want to get this over with as quickly as possible."

David stepped forward "I understand that, Em. But we're useless if we're walking exhaustedly out into the dark. We don't even know what could be out there."

Emma looked at the ground. "I can protect us."

"Sure you can. But we don't want you using your magic."

Mary Margaret nodded. "We don't want you to take it too far over the edge. Someone could get hurt."

Did her mother really not trust her _at all?_

Emma toed the ground, kicking at loose patches of dirt. "Fine," she muttered. "Set up camp."

The others began to collect fallen pieces of wood, and David worked to assemble them into living-worthy shelters. It looked like he was trying to build a house out of cards; every time he got a few sticks to stand on their own, they collapsed, and he had to start over.

Regina stood in front of a separate pile of sticks, trying to light a fire with her magic. She succeeded in lighting a small flame in the wood.

Henry came up behind her. " _That's_ the best you can do?" he asked her.

"The sticks are damp!" Regina protested.

"Mom," Henry said slowly. "You can light your hands on _fire._ Surely you can just poof us up some shelter, too?"

"Right. I knew that." Regina placed one hand on her hip and flicked the other at David's fallen pile of sticks. A bright red tent appeared.

Henry rolled his eyes. "You couldn't have poofed us up a mansion?"

"I'm magical, not a miracle worker." Regina moved her hands in a wide circle, gesturing at the borders of their campsite. "Besides, this is only a twenty-foot clearing."

"Thanks," David said at the tent, silently admitting to himself that he was never going to be able to construct a sturdy shelter. Even as a shepherd his house had already been built for him. David had fought the most fearful of beasts, had _killed_ the most fearful of beasts, but God forbid he should be able to weave a few sticks together into a simple shape decent enough to cover his head.

The sky suddenly darkened. Everyone in the group looked to the heavens and noticed that several navy colored clouds were blocking out the remaining light of the day. The sky was now a deep purple and threatening rain. Thunder rumbled off in the distance like the deep, throaty growl of a wild cat.

Mary Margaret dropped the pile of sticks she had been collecting and turned to Emma. "Really, Emma?" she said. " _Rain?_ We're setting up shelter! So we can help _you!"_

Emma exploded. "I'm not doing it on purpose!" she yelled back. "You can't just assume that because I'm the Dark One now my only goal is to make your lives worse! David knows that! Henry knows that! Regina knows that! Why can't you just accept that just because I'm different, doesn't mean I'm _worse_!"

Emma was fuming by now. The clouds opened up, and rain poured down on them in buckets, soaking them even through the dense, protective covering of the treetops.

Before she could say anything in response, David took Mary Margaret by the shoulder and steered her into the tent.

Regina waved her hand, and two other tents appeared. Her and Henry disappeared into one.

Lily walked over and gently nudged Emma's shoulder. "Hey. Your mom loves you, you know. That's why this is hard for her. She hates seeing you lost like this." Emma didn't say anything in response, so Lily sighed. "Come on. Let's try and get some rest for tomorrow." She led Emma into the remaining tent and forced her to lay down on the ground.

Emma stayed awake all night, the rain battering the flimsy tent. Lily snored beside her, so Emma threw up a sound barrier around herself to block the noise. She was so distracted by thoughts of her mother that she didn't even notice that she hadn't seen Hook since earlier that afternoon, that he had disappeared from the group.

When morning came and the group rose, Emma's rain was still coming down. She couldn't get over the fact that her own mother couldn't trust her; she was tempted by her anger to do something horribly awful and be the person her mother _thought_ she was. It was counterproductive, she knew. But doing something truly, horrendously destructive would feel _wonderful._

Emma stood up from the hard floor of the tent and walked out into the open. Everyone, including Lily, was waiting for her and being soaked by her storm. They were all shivering, but they all looked completely willing to continue on their journey with her.

Emma relaxed slightly at this realization, and the rain let up a little bit.

Her father grabbed her hand, and Emma noticed for the first time that it no longer hurt for people to touch her. She didn't know whether this was because she trusted herself more, or because she had just stopped caring. She had no idea _where_ she was with the whole Dark One thing.

David didn't let go of her hand as they restarted their walk to Merlin. She could tell it wasn't that he thought she was childish and incapable of being trusted, he just wanted to be with her.

Regina used her magic to poof up apples for the group as they travelled down the path, which Snow politely declined. Everyone else ate theirs hungrily; they knew they were going to need their energy for the walk ahead of them that day.

"Doing okay?" Lily whispered to Emma in the back of the group.

"Just peachy," Emma responded in a whisper. "Things couldn't _possibly_ be better."

Lily ignored the bite in Emma's words. "Look, we'll be there by tonight. You just have to hold yourself together until then."

It was sweet, Lily thinking Emma was still _together._

Emma's rain finally stopped around noon, and the crew took a short break for lunch. Emma was okay with this. She had forgotten last night that people needed _sleep._

Mary Margaret managed to catch a few rabbits. It took her over an hour to do so, and she came back drenched in sweat, smiling with the catches dangling in her hands. It was weird for everyone seeing _Snow White_ get so excited over death, but they gratefully cooked the rabbits over the fire and ate them anyway.

Henry spoke up midway through his meal, his mouth full of mwat. His words came out distorted, but everyone could understand what he was saying: "We're _so_ close."

There was a murmur of encouragement that passed through the group at this. Everyone was feeling the excitement of helping Emma be free of the Darkness. Except for Emma.

Finally, Merlin's castle was reached and exhausted smiles were exchanged. Emma now stood in the front of the group, staring at the massive structure in front of her. She turned around to face her loyal following.

"Should I knock?"

Lily shrugged. "Never been to a castle before. I wouldn't know." She glanced at the Charmings for help.

David raised his hands in a _don't-ask-me_ motion. "I've never arrived at someone else's castle like this before."

"We could blast the door down," Regina suggested.

Mary Margaret shook her head. "I don't know about that, Regina."

Regina raised an eyebrow at Snow. "What, you have a better idea? Please feel free to demonstrate."

"No, but I _do_ know blowing his door down won't put us on good terms with Merlin."

"Well, then how _do_ you propose we enter?"

"Guys, stop it," Henry interjected. Both of them immediately shut up.

Emma looked from person to person, an overwhelmed look on her face. "Okay, I guess I'll just knock then…"

She slowly turned back around and raised her hand to the door. Before her fist could contact the wood, though, the enormous doors swung open, welcoming them into the large hallway.

As they stepped in, Regina said, "Does anyone else feel like this might be just a little bit _too_ easy?"


	31. Chapter 31: What Can Merlin do But Watch

**A/N: We are approaching the end of the story! I just want to say, thank you to all of you who have stuck with me through the entire process! I really appreciate your support, and I hope you have enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it! You guys are super great, and I know I couldn't have done this without you! Mwah!**

 **Note: Last chapter is scheduled to be posted on Saturday, October 17** **th** **, 2015. This is subject to change but is looking pretty solid at the moment.**

Merlin frowned at the slightly disheveled gathering of people in front of him, asking for his aid. He was completely different than the group had been expecting, actually. He didn't wear a blue cloak with yellow trim and cheesy stars and moons tacked on it like they all had been picturing in their minds. Instead, he wore a flowing robe in the richest shade of red possible. The robe seemed to be moving in an imperceptible but persistent breeze; it rolled in smooth waves around the body of the great wizard.

He sat contentedly on a throne, rubbing his palm over his raven beard as the group tried to explain their predicament to him. Every once in a while he would nod and offer an "Mmhm" to show he was still listening.

Hook had rejoined them in the castle- they found out that he had wandered off for a bathroom, gotten lost, and then was found and brought back to the castle by King Arthur himself.

"Aren't you a pirate?" Regina had asked him when he admitted he'd gotten lost.

"I don't sail my ship over bloody _land!"_ he'd replied angrily.

Emma was sitting in the corner, knees folded to her chest, watching everyone retell what had happened since she'd become the Dark One. Her brown contact-covered eyes darted frantically from person to person as they each made an effort to contribute details to the story. She noticed each person had a different approach to the story. David spoke defensively, asserting that Emma had legitimate and justifiable reasons for doing everything that she'd done as of yet. Regina told her part of the story with a deep sense of understanding; she'd been through similar events. Her voice sounded like it was being held back, like she felt like she was almost telling the pains of her _own_ story.

Hook's voice was gritty and overlapped with pain, and it was obvious to Emma that he was having a hard time seeing her struggling (and beginning to lose) like this. Her heart melted a little at this; she recognized how difficult it was for him to deeply love something that he had before been trying to kill.

Henry spoke with love. He was even more supportive of her than David was.

Lily, she kept quiet. She knew it wasn't her place to speak.

But Mary Margaret? She talked with her eyes directed at the ground and her voice lowered, like she was ashamed of herself. She clearly felt it was her fault that Emma had given in so much to the Darkness already, and she was disappointed that they'd let it get this far. Disappointed in herself. Disappointed in Emma.

Emma balled her hands into fists in the corner. Why was her mother so upset? Sure, her thoughts were mixed between good, bad, and totally, off-the-charts evil. But she hadn't acted on anything. _Yet._ Emma felt like she was back in the orphanage, silently taking the blame for all of the things she never did.

Behind her, a golden tapestry with a roaring lion depicted on it burst into flames. She glanced back at the hanging fabric, acknowledging her anger and other swirling emotions, but allowed the tapestry to burn otherwise.

So did Merlin.

After the group finished recounting Emma's story, there was a long silence. Then, Merlin spoke up. He had a deep, booming voice that carried all the way across the large castle room and echoed off of the walks. It was intimidating. "So, you want me to destroy the darkness? Is that why you're here?"

They all nodded.

Merlin sighed. "I'm afraid _I_ can't do that."

David launched forward. They'd come this far, and the great, powerful, and fabled Merlin couldn't do a single thing to help? What kind of a sick joke _was_ this? "What!? You're Merlin! You can do _anything!_ Why are you so famous if you can't live up to everything people say you can do?"

Merlin gave a low chuckle. "I can do far from _anything._ Like anyone else, I can't bring back the dead. I _certainly_ cannot obliterate the Darkness. It is far too powerful for me."

"Didn't you create the Darkness?" Regina asked. "If you created it, couldn't _you_ destroy it?"

Merlin was appalled at this question. "Gods, no! Why in the world would I create such an awful thing? The Darkness is a disgrace to nature. No, I simply contained it in a form that could be controlled."

"And Emma's that form now," Regina said definitively, suddenly understanding why there was a Dark _One_ and not just Dark _ness_.

"Precisely," the old wizard confirmed.

"So, what now?" Emma said loudly, forcing herself to her feet. "What do we do if we can't destroy the Darkness?" She strode over to where Merlin sat. Emma's brown hair bounced violently as she walked with extreme purpose across the enormous space between her and Merlin. The blunt, dark cut of her hair truly made her look even more devastating a force than before. Her red leather jacket had always been edgy, but it seemed even edgier with her new look. Emma, unlike Rumplestiltskin, did not look like the embodiment of evil. Nonetheless, Emma looked hardcore and rough, like she would hurt anyone who got in her way.

When she reached the group, they immediately parted and gave her a wide girth to Merlin.

"That's the problem," Merlin said as Emma reached him, finally putting out Emma's flaming tapestry with a light wave of his hand. " _We_ ourselves cannot destroy darkness. Do you know why evil wins? Because it can play dirty. It can break the rules. The only way evil ever loses is if it plays _too_ dirty, to the point where it messes itself up." He licked his lips. "Listen carefully. Only. Evil. Can. Destroy. Evil."

"What are you saying?" asked David.

"The Darkness is delicious, no?" Merlin asked Emma. "Every new thing you do is a fun little taste of what you could _potentially_ do?"

Emma nodded.

"So you'll just take it further and further, easing yourself slowly into the Darkness until you're desensitized to the horrific consequences of your actions. You will have no regret; in fact, everything you do will be for your own pleasure."

"I don't get it," said Regina.

"Emma needs to realize she _doesn't_ want to be the Dark One, that she doesn't even want the _magic_ that comes with it, whether she uses it for good purposes or not." Merlin looked pointedly at Emma.

"Okay, I'll just say it, then," Emma said. "I definitely _don't_ want to be the Dark One."

The wizard sighed, and his robe billowed out behind him as he did so. "It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid." Merlin shook his head sadly. "It's like life skills; you learn through experience. And, even if you do all you can do, the Darkness may never completely go away. Actually, it's unsure what will happen to it. Nothing like this has ever been attempted before."

"I still don't understand," said Mary Margaret. "So, what? Emma has to go out and talk to bunnies to get rid of the Darkness?"

"I can't say anything more. Emma has to figure this out on her own. If I tell you the solution now, it won't work. Do you have the dagger?"

Lily nodded slowly in response. "Yeah, why?"

"Give it to Emma," Merlin commanded.

"What!?" Mary Margaret was outraged. "What if she tries to do something? What do we do _then?"_

"You let her do it, then. Like I said, she needs to learn for herself the true horrors of being the Dark One."

"But- but-" Mary Margaret looked defeated. "Fine."

Lily slowly lifted the dagger out of her boot and tossed it to Emma. Emma caught it with ease, one hand closing around the dagger's handle.

"Thanks, Lil," Emma acknowledged.

"Got your back, Em. You and I, we're two of a kind. Living to fight the Darkness. Fighting the Darkness to live."

Emma groaned at this and turned to Regina, holding up the dagger that might as well have been engraved with the words "You're on your own, so good-freaking-luck with that" instead of _Emma Swan._ "Well, Regina," she said, " _here's_ your blip in the situation. You said this seemed too easy, and it was. For all the hype on Merlin, he can't do squat. This is why I don't trust people."

Regina bit her lip. "I have a bad feeling this isn't the 'big obstacle' we need to face, Swan."


	32. Chapter 32: Something Drastic

Emma paced back and forth across the large Dining Hall in Merlin's castle. It didn't really feel like pacing, though, since it took at least a minute to cross the room and another minute to make her way back. This bothered Emma as she didn't know what else to do to calm her frazzled nerves. The plush carpet, adorned with golden swirls and elaborate designs, sunk underneath her heavy steps. "So, we're trapped in Camelot, we can't get home to Storybrooke, and Merlin's no help." Emma shook her head at the ornate ceiling. "This sucks. This sucks so badly I don't even have a word for it."

The décor of the room wasn't helping, either. The deep red and yellow fabrics layered everywhere, on every wall and every table and every corner, made Emma nervous. The colors were so intense that they felt like they were dominating, rather than accenting, the room. She would have much preferred muted colors, like blues and grays. The bright colors excited her senses too much for her liking.

Lily didn't know exactly how this whole Dark One thing worked. She had an extremely basic and limited knowledge of what it was to be the Dark One, but she had no idea exactly how one _became_ the Dark One. Nonetheless, she was eager to help the situation. She figured se couldn't possibly make it any worse, so she offered her ideas to the group. "Maybe we could let another person take the Darkness," Lily suggested. "Or, we could hand it off from person to person so that nobody gets pulled in."

Regina intently studied this strange girl. Half dragon, half human, yet so oblivious to the workings of magic. Even Emma, who hadn't lived with magic for much longer than Lily, understood how all of this worked. "Oh," she said, raising an eyebrow at Lily, "so now we're playing Hacky Sack with the Darkness?" She smirked. "I'm sure _that_ would be a blast."

Lily frowned at the older woman. "I don't see you coming up with anything!"

"Regina," Snow scolded, her voice taking on the low, serious tone of a mom. It was strange having _Snow_ telling her how to behave- Regina had always been the adult back in the Enchanted forest. "She's just trying to help."

Regina rolled her eyes.

Every time Emma passed the group, a blast of cold air trailed behind her and hit them like an icy wall. They braced themselves the best they could, holding onto each other so as not to topple over in the wake of her mini-tornado, but the breeze was still inevitable. Sometimes, Emma would walk by and nothing would happen, and they would sigh in relief and let go of each other. But the wind would always come, delayed, and blow powerfully around them. Hook shivered in Emma's whirlwind of emotions. "Love," he said, reaching for her hand. She stopped and turned to face him. "Stop pacing. You're not doing yourself any good."

"Sorry," she apologized distractedly, her eyes staring blankly ahead at the door, then began to pace the length of the room again.

"Merlin said it needs to be Emma who gets rid of the Darkness," David reminded them. "We can help, but only she can ultimately stop this."

"Mmhm," murmured Mary Margaret, unsure of what else to say.

"I have a feeling that Emma has to make a monumental mistake with her Dark Magic," Regina hypothesized. "It probably has to be so horrendous, so abominable that Emma just- Emma just-" Regina paused abruptly and glanced back at the woman who had saved not only her but her _happiness_. That Saviour was now just a broken girl once more. Emma deserved her happiness more than anyone in that room, and Regina had let her revert back into Little, Lost Emma because _she_ wanted to be with Robin. She suddenly realized the severity of the consequences Emma faced for saving her.

"Gives up," she finally finished.

Emma stopped directly in front of her family. The dagger dangled loosely from her thumb and forefinger. "Do you think," she said, flipping her wrist so that the dagger's handle landed in her palm, "that _I_ could kill _myself_ with this?" She drew the blade gently across her wrist. "It's kind of paradoxical. I can't die, but this _dagger_ can kill me, right? And I can't kill myself. But, theoretically, shouldn't the dagger be able to end my life, even in _my_ hands? But what would happen to the Darkness, then?" She paused, thoughtful

Taking advantage of Emma's thoughtfulness, Henry stepped forward. He placed his hand around her wrist in a gesture that said, _Slow down, we're still here_ , gently tugged the dagger from her grip, and slipped it into one of her brown leather boots. Emma smiled sadly at him and ran her fingers through his long, brown hair. "You're getting so big," she whispered, placing a loving hand on his shoulder.

She turned to Regina. "You think I have to do something I regret?" She asked this with complete seriousness. Sadly, the idea made sense. Back in school, she had only _truly_ learned after making a mistake. Dodge ball. She had to be hit by a ball before getting the idea to run away from it. Pronunciation. She pronounced the words _poppy seed_ "poopy seed" in front of her entire third grade class, and the embarrassment prompted her to double down on her reading studies. Family.

Family had never seemed to last for Emma.

Emma swallowed.

"Yes." Regina nodded genuinely. "I wouldn't be saying this if I didn't wholeheartedly believe it was the only solution."

"Actually, Love, that makes sense," Hook said to Emma, blue eyes darting back and forth between the two women. "How would you ever totally know that being the Dark One was one-hundred percent shit if you never regretted anything you did?"

"I don't get it!" Mary Margaret exclaimed (which she was starting to feel like was the sole phrase everyone had been using as of late. Them being so clueless was starting to get old.). "I thought we were trying to _keep_ Emma from going bad! What's to stop her if we let her get away with _one_ terrible thing? She'll just keep doing whatever she wants! We don't know what, if anything, is going to stop this!" She drew in a deep breath. Her next words were calm and measured. "I think we should play it safe. _We_ don't want to get hurt, and we don't want to push Emma too far. We don't know that Emma _has_ to make a mistake to end the Darkness, so let's not jump to any conclusions yet."

"Jumped-to conclusions are all we have," Lily argued. "If we ignore them, then we're back to square one. I agree with Hook; what Regina said makes sense."

"I just can't imagine the proportions of what Emma would have to do to get rid of the Darkness. It would literally have to _destroy_ her," Regina admitted quietly, shoving her hands into her pockets. At the moment, guilt was gnawing at her insides for allowing Emma to take such a drastic fall for her. By now, Emma's life should be filled with butterflies and dancing and holding hands with the fairies. Instead, she was battling the most devastating force anyone could possibly imagine.

All because of Regina. Regina had done nothing but make Emma's life a living hell from the start, keeping her away from her son, trying to kill her, and, when those didn't work, trying to push her son away from _her._ Yet Emma hadn't hesitated to step in when the Darkness was threatening Regina's life.

Though Emma was the Saviour, that wasn't why she'd let the Darkness into her body. Emma was pure good. She was the kind of person who made mistakes, but never at anyone else's expense.

Though spaced a little ways away from the group, Emma had heard Regina's comment. She nodded solemnly in agreement with the ex-Evil Queen. "Regina's right, most likely. She had to realize that she didn't want to be evil anymore before she could change. So, I should have to, too."

"But this isn't just something you can _choose_ to go along with or not, Emma! The Darkness _controls_ you," Mary Margaret protested, waving her hands wildly in the air to punctuate her point.

Emma spun around to face her mother. "The Darkness may encourage me," she said, "but all of my decisions are my own. The only thing that changes that is the dagger." She paused and glanced at the ground. "I don't know why you don't think I can keep myself under control," she added. "You keep saying I'm going to snap, and that's not true _at the moment_ , but every time you say that, it almost becomes true."

"But, Emma-" Mary Margaret started to respond.

"No!" Emma said insistently. She held up her hand simply to get her mother to stop talking. She didn't want to hear any more of Mary Margaret's discouraging buts.

Snow flinched back, away from Emma's outstretched hand, as if she feared her own daughter would hurt her.

That was it for Emma. That was the final straw.

Emma silenced. She simply turned angrily on her heels and strode out of the room, plotting her revenge on her distrustful mother with every step. If it was Dark Emma Mary Margaret wanted, it was the Dark Swan Mary Margaret would get.


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N: Only two more chapters to go after this one… are you excited? Nervous? Neutral? I just really wanted to thank all of you for your support (again). It's been an interesting and fun journey, writing this story. I'm glad you all have been there with me!**

 **Don't forget, I am posting the last chapter on Saturday!**

 **P.S. If you are interested, I will be posting the prologue for a new story on Saturday, also. You can either follow me or check my profile page throughout the day to see if it has been posted yet, if you would like to read it.**

 **Mwah!**

"Emma!" _Bang. Bang. Bang._ "Emma, open the door! I'm sorry!"

Emma lay on her enormous four-poster bed in one of the spare castle bedrooms, studying the baby angels – cherubs, Emma believed they were called - delicately painted on the ceiling. They looked so cheerful and content with their lives, like they had done nothing but good deeds for eternity and would do nothing more. Emma snarled. _Their_ good deeds had never backfired on them.

To Emma, it almost felt sacrilegious to put such a dark soul inside of such a religiously devoted room. The angels seemed to stare back at her in disgust, even though her situation wasn't completely her fault. They taunted her with their innate goodness and the rewards they had received for being so angelic.

 _Look at her. The Dark One._

 _The scum of the Earth. The lowest of the low._

 _Hungry for power and never satisfied._

 _What does she want with us? We do not bother_ her.

 _I know,_ Emma whispered silently at the chubby cheeks, the feathered wings, the tiny, pointed arrows.

"Emma!" came the voice again. "Emma, please, I just want to apologize!" _BANG. BANG. BANG._ The heavy knocks reverberated through the room. Emma rolled on her side so that she could not see the door or the mocking cherubs.

Emma didn't want to talk to her mother; her mother was treading on thin ice with her Dark side. Emma was bouncing back and forth between two polar opposites, and the leaps were so large that they left Emma exhausted. She tried to stay as the slightly more normal version of herself, but the Darkness was tempting and inevitably roped her back in. When she was fully the Dark One, Emma would try to ignore the dark desires she felt, but her voice was seldom heard over the roar of evil want and longing.

Luckily, the Dark One hadn't asked Emma to do anything _too_ terribly drastic yet.

Since stepping back into a world that _did_ have magic, Emma's frame had thinned even more, the circles underneath her eyes had turned nearly black, and her eyes were sunken deeply in to her head. Emma looked like one of the skeletons people hung on their houses at Halloween to frighten off eager trick-or-treaters. She was clearly going downhill quickly; they had only been in Camelot for a couple of days now. Every task Emma attempted took an extreme effort, lots of help, and several minutes to complete. Even brushing her teeth was difficult. The only thing that didn't completely zap Emma's energy was magic.

With the way things were progressing, would Emma simply waste away and die, being the Dark One? Would the battle between Darkness and Light kill her? No, of course not.

Things were never that easy for her.

Emma glanced up at the ceiling again. With a passive wave of her hand, the angels disappeared from the ceiling. Black paint coated the deep colors that told of an easy life, an easy life that made Emma jealous. She felt better without the judgmental gazes of the puny things bearing down on her. They didn't understand. Nobody did.

 _I had good intentions._

All the while, during Emma's conversation with herself, there had been a constant knocking on her door. Mary Margaret was obviously intent on talking to her daughter.

Emma flashed her palm at the door, bolting the second of the three locks on the door shut. The noise stopped momentarily as Snow heard the _click_ of the lock, and Emma wondered if her mother had gotten the message and given up on trying to talk to her. But, then, a few more knocks resonated in the stone room, and Emma received the answer to her previous question. The knocking continued on.

Emma bolted the third lock.

There was another slight pause in the knocking. Then, she heard Mary Margaret's sigh, followed by receding footsteps. Emma listened to the _thud, thud, thud_ noise quieting as Mary Margaret made her way down the long hallway and down the staircase.

 _You're doing what you have to,_ Emma reminded herself. _You're stable right now, and you don't want to do anything to bring the Dark One back prematurely._

Emma soon realized that there was nothing she could do from stopping the Dark One in her as she suddenly felt herself slipping away. Colors went from out-of-focus to black as night. Sounds muted and died away. The soft mattress and silk sheets went from warm and welcoming to cold and hard as stone underneath her.

Emma breathed in deeply. The transition from Emma Swan to Dark Swan was always a difficult, uncomfortable one. The transition back was even more difficult; she supposed that was because it was harder to fight the Darkness than it was to embrace it.

Everything snapped back into focus for Emma. Objects jumped out at her in laser quality, and she blinked, trying to make what she saw less intensely defined. Noise magnified itself and separated into individual waves so that Emma could hear the conversation in the Dining Hall two floors below as if she were in the room with everyone herself.

She heard the heavy wooden door creak open painstakingly slowly, and Mary Margaret joined the group.

"…don't think that's such a good idea," Regina said slowly.

"Well, why not?" David said. "She wouldn't do anything unless she was provoked; we know _that_ much about Emma. She has to have a _reason_ for doing something, or she won't do it."

"No," Regina said authoritatively. "We are not doing _anything_ to provoke Emma. You don't poke the sleeping dragon, unless you plan on getting crispy-fried, _David_." Regina bit down on David's name, frustrated with his stupidity.

"Yeah," Mary Margaret said, "I agree with Regina. Emma's the Dark One; there's no telling _what_ she'd do if we angered, let alone whether or not it's the _right_ thing to do. What if someone gets hurt?"

"That's the thing." David put special emphasis on these words. "Any of us is willing to do _anything_ for Emma, right? She's done nothing but save our asses so far."

Everyone nodded.

"So," David continued, "we've decided as a whole that she needs to make some sort of mistake, right? And we're not cruel enough to allow her to harm some innocent stranger. _Right?_ I would certainly hope not. _"_

Murmurs of agreement rose from the group and met Emma's ears. Emma grinned wickedly at this joke of a statement. _Let_ her hurt someone? _She_ had the dagger. What did they think they could possibly do to stop her from doing what she wanted, getting what she wanted? The best defenses they had against her were Lily and Regina. Lily was new to being a dragon; she didn't know how to use it to advantage. And Regina? Regina was laughable in comparison to Emma. The Evil Queen was _no_ match for the Dark Swan.

Even if Emma were the old Emma, there would've been no stopping her once she put her mind to something. She broke Regina's curse with absolutely no magic at her aid; imagine what she could do _with_ magic.

"If someone gets harmed, it needs to be one of us," David finished. "Besides, that would likely be the only thing drastic enough to make Emma's dark side think twice."

Up in her room, Emma nodded in agreement. _Yes, I agree that it_ should _be one of you that gets hurt. I even know exactly who already: the one who never trusted me in the first place._

A black liquid that resembled tar dripped through the ceiling and slowly formed a puddle in front of the group. Regina, David, Henry, Hook, Mary Margaret, and Lily all watched in confusion as the puddle grew larger and larger and inched closer and closer to their feet.

They stared at the liquid for a long while, trying to figure out what it was. Puzzled, Hook glanced at the ceiling, searching for the source, but there was no residual black liquid left on the ceiling to indicate just _where_ it had come from. Henry nudged the goop with his foot, and it dipped inwards where he touched it. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Henry!" Regina scolded him. "Don't touch strange black substances!" Upon hearing this statement exit her mouth, Regina sighed and placed her fingers to her temple. She had never thought she would have to say that sentence in her life; it was probably the most ridiculously necessary thing she'd ever had to say.

A figure emerged from the liquid. It rose, blackened by the tar, as if awaking from a long slumber, and slowly stretched its arms out wide. As it straightened itself out and unfolded itself like one would unfold a lawn chair, the group noticed that the shape of the figure resembled that of a human.

The liquid finally fell away from the figure and splashed to the floor. Midnight droplets spattered the group, and they all immediately wiped their faces clean of the disgusting liquid.

"Emma!" David gasped, seeing what the figure actually was.

Emma smiled satirically at him and held her arms up to the light so the group could see them. Her skin was golden and sparkling, catching light from the chandelier and flashing it into everyone's eyes. "Hello, Dearies," she said simply.


	34. Chapter 34: Diamonds to Dust

**A/N: WOW! Only one chapter left to go… I mean, wow. This is crazy. I can't believe everyone has been so supportive and positive toward this story, let alone ANYONE at all. Thank you all so much! I love seeing a new favorite or a new follow, and I absolutely** _ **love**_ **reading all of the reviews you guys leave me! It's astonishing to me that there are people out there that** _ **like**_ **reading my work! I LOVE you all, even though I don't know you, because you are what drives this story forward!**

 **That being said, I put extra work into this chapter just for you guys. It will be a shocking chapter, but it will be interesting. Some of you may hate me for this chapter, but please stick around ~ we're one chapter from the end, and I think the last chapter may bring you all some peace.**

 **Again, I love all you guys! I will put a chapter at the end when I post the final chapter tomorrow to thank each and every one of you personally**

"What happened to you, Emma?" Regina asked her, stepping forward.

Emma smiled and twisted her arms so that she could admire her dark jacket. It looked like something Regina might've worn as the Evil Queen, with sleek, black leather and a dramatic collar that rose sharply to her cheeks.

"I'm different," Emma said honestly. She paused. A confident look arose in her eyes, and she looked at Regina before speaking again. "I'm better."

It was obvious to everyone that Emma had irrevocably become the Dark Swan. The Dark _One._ It wasn't Emma _and_ the Dark One anymore, separated within one single carrier. There would be no waffling back and forth anymore, straddling the line between good and evil as Emma had been doing. It was just _Dark Swan_ now. No more, no less.

"As the Dark One? You're better?" There was no inflection in Hook's voice, but in his disappointment, he couldn't help but wrinkle his nose a little at this. His love had merged with his former enemy.

Emma frowned lightly at him. "I- I used to be scarred, and judgmental, and closed off," she said to him. "It took me forever to see the magic in Storybrooke."

There was something raw and real about the way Emma spoke. The wall she normally put up to keep people out had fallen, gone crashing to the ground, and there was nothing but truthfulness written on her face. There wasn't even malice or revenge in her eyes, only pure, unabated honesty. She broke her gaze away from Hook. "Now, I… I see things clearly." A smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she stared at the carpet. "I'm not scared anymore."

Hook reached out to stroke Emma's cheek, but Emma took a step back, away from him. "What did you ever have to be afraid of, Love?"

"Being the Saviour." She took a deep breath before looking up at the group again. "Whenever there was a problem in Storybrooke, who did you always call to stop it? Mary Margaret?" She shook her head gently, and her pain was evident in her eyes, even through her brown contacts. "Do you know how difficult it was to be the one that everyone relies on?" Her voice wavered. "To think, ' _What if I mess this up_?' It's not like I was making a pizza. I couldn't mess up; people's lives were resting on _my_ shoulders. I just-" She swallowed, wrapping her arms around herself, and pressed her eyes tightly closed.

The group remained silent. They had expected Emma to be malevolent; vengeful, even, but this- _this_ was unexpected. Even as the Dark One, they were seeing Emma was just Emma, if you dug deep enough, on the inside.

"How is this better?" Hook finally said after a long while, shattering the delicate silence they all shared.

When Emma finally opened her eyes again, the suffering in them had vanished. She furrowed her brows so that they met her eyes. "Well, think about it. Rumple was born a coward-"

"I don't think you should use the Crocodile as your example," Hook interrupted her through gritted teeth.

" _You_ _told_ me how the man he was groveled and cried on the deck of this ship," she continued. Hook looked down in shame. " _He_ changed for the better, too," Emma said, a light, carefree hope evident in her eyes and in the slight upturn of her mouth.

"You're wrong," Hook breathed harshly at her. " _I_ was the villain in that little drama, Swan." _Swan,_ he called her. Not Emma, not Love. Swan, because she _wasn't_ Emma anymore. Swan, because she _wasn't_ the person he'd fallen in love with. She'd been blinded by the Darkness. "He was a good man, trying to keep his family together, and I took a sword and-" He shook his head and swallowed. "And I put it to his head. And taunted him." Hook paused to let his words sink in. "I was the only one there who's changed for the better," he bit out. "He became an evil, manipulative _killer."_

"Killian-" Emma tried.

"I just don't want to see you do the same," Hook admitted, avoiding Emma's gaze.

Emma's eyes moved back and forth, scanning his face, her mouth agape. "I-I'm sorry," she said. "But there's something I need to do."

With that, she pushed her hand into Mary Margaret's chest and tore out her heart. Everyone immediately moved forward to help Snow, but Emma quickly held her hand up to stop them.

Emma held the sad little thing in the palm of her hand, half of a heart, half of a life. She turned it over in her hand and rubbed her thumb over the tiny black spot forming on the heart, smiling at the thought of her Mary Margaret's own internal demons.

Mary Margaret was bent double, watching her own heart pulsing persistently, defiantly, in Emma's hands. She breathed heavily through the pain and clutched her palm to her chest. "I'm your _mother,_ " she reminded Emma.

Emma slowly turned her head to look at Mary Margaret, her face as cold and as unmoving as stone. "I don't care," she said quietly.

Emma crushed the fragile heart in her hand. It turned to dust beneath her fingers. She turned her palm sideways, and Snow's life floated, piece by piece, to the ground. The ashes settled on the carpet with devastating finality.

Emma had thought she was getting what she wanted, ridding herself of Mary Margaret. But, as she crushed Mary Margaret's heart, something, an emotion, broke out on her face. Her brown contacts fell away, and she blinked her green eyes in shock, watching what she was doing as she did it, unable to stop it.

Her hair lengthened, turning back from brown to her natural, shining golden. As she let Mary Margaret's life drift away from her hands, Emma staggered back. She collapsed to the ground at the exact moment her mother did, her knees hitting the ground with a hard _thud._ She bent forward, pressing her forehead to the ground. She rocked herself forward and backward several times, pressing her forehead to the ground and lifting it up and pressing it back down again.

Nobody came to her aid. David caught Mary Margaret mid-fall, cradling her in his arms and pushing her hair back from her face even though she was dead, as dead as they come. Everyone else, freed of Emma's trance, rushed to be at Mary Margaret's side.

Nobody cared about Emma anymore. Nobody could care about Emma anymore because Emma had shown she didn't care about them.

Right as the group thought to direct their attention to Emma, to look at Emma, a cloud of grey smoke swirled around the blonde. When it was gone, she was gone.


	35. Chapter 35: Finale

**A/N: Ohmygosh! Last chapter, guys! Finale! I think you all will enjoy it! Thanks for reading and being so supportive!**

 _Emma had thought she was getting what she wanted, ridding herself of Mary Margaret. But, as she crushed Mary Margaret's heart, something, an emotion, broke out on her face. Her brown contacts fell away, and she blinked her green eyes in shock, watching what she was doing as she did it, unable to stop it._

 _Her hair lengthened, turning back from brown to her natural, shining golden. As she let Mary Margaret's life drift away from her hands, Emma staggered back. She collapsed to the ground at the exact moment her mother did, her knees hitting the ground with a hard thud. She bent forward, pressing her forehead to the ground. She rocked herself forward and backward several times, pressing her forehead to the ground and lifting it up and pressing it back down again._

 _Nobody came to her aid. David caught Mary Margaret mid-fall, cradling her in his arms and pushing her hair back from her face even though she was dead, as dead as they come. Everyone else, freed of Emma's trance, rushed to be at Mary Margaret's side._

 _Nobody cared about Emma anymore. Nobody could care about Emma anymore because Emma had shown she didn't care about them._

 _Right as the group thought to direct their attention to Emma, to look at Emma, a cloud of grey smoke swirled around the blonde. When it was gone, she was gone._

The dagger clattered to the ground where Emma had been kneeling previously. Dark tendrils swirled in the air above it, and everyone watched them carefully, hoping it would not attack any of them. The tendrils made a sick squishing sound, and blue light shot out from in between the Darkness.

With sudden ferocity, the tendrils shot down and struck the dagger. The dagger shook with great intensity as it absorbed the Darkness, and the intricate swirls adorning the object slowly disappeared as the Darkness filled and blackened the dagger.

When it was all over, the midnight dagger quaked and quivered on the ground, barely containing the Darkness that had invaded it.

"Nobody touch it," Hook directed them. Then, he guided Lily out of the room to allow Mary Margaret's family a moment alone with her.

"Regina," David said urgently. "You _have_ to give Snow my heart. You _have_ to."

David knew in his soul, the only thing that was truly his, that this was the right thing to do. Snow had given him half of her life, and now he was giving it back to her. They shared a heart, Snow's heart, to be specific, and it would be selfish of him to keep his own life when who it truly belonged to was Mary Margaret.

"I- I-" Regina stammered. Henry was wrapped protectively in her arms, face pressed into her shoulder, sobbing. She didn't bother rubbing his back or stroking his hair. There was no comfort to be had here, nothing she could do that would offer him a reprieve from his grief. She just held onto him as tightly as she could with the two arms she had.

She frowned and blinked slowly, several times, as if she didn't understand David's words. Her lips moved silently, testing out the words in her mouth. They didn't feel right to her.

"But _you'll_ die."

"I already have," David responded, not lifting his eyes from Snow. Death could steal her life, but it could not steal her beauty. She was still as lovely as ever. "Twice," he said. "So it's not fair for me to go on living with half of _Mary Margaret's_ heart."

He twisted a lock of Snow's hair around his fingers, tenderly stroked her cold face that was usually so full of life and expression. He ran his thumb lovingly over her lips, wishing True Love's Kiss could fix this curse.

It couldn't, though. Not this time. Death was a far more formidable and permanent force than was love.

" _Give. Her. My. Heart,"_ he spat at Regina.

"David-" Regina said. Tears streamed down her cheeks, dragging her mascara with them like a warden hauls a prisoner to their death. Her eyes glistened and shone and sparkled behind her tears, and she found herself wishing to say all the things she never had.

 _I'm sorry._

 _This is all my fault._

 _I don't deserve the forgiveness you and Snow have given me._

"Do it!" David barked at her, still staring at Snow. " _Now."_

Regina choked out a sob as David cupped Snow's cheeks in his hands and pressed his forehead to hers. "I love you," he whispered to her, stroking her cheek with his thumb, "and I will _always_ find you."

He looked at Regina then. Regina forced herself to tear one arm away from Henry and place her fingers against David's chest. She could feel the heart there, just underneath the surface, pulsing, missing its other half. There was a sad determination, a solemn kindness, in David's eyes, and Regina just couldn't watch herself doing something so awful. She shut her eyes and pushed her fingertips through his skin, through what was supposed to protect such a vital life force but failed in any world, and wrapped her fingers around David's heart. Snow's heart. It beat a rhythmic battle against her hand, and it lost as she gingerly tugged it out into this harsh world.

Regina felt as if she were ripping her own heart out.

Even though Regina could not watch this agonizing process, David's eyes stuck to Mary Margaret like glue. He wanted the last thing he saw to be the woman he'd loved for what might as well have been his entire life, because everything that came before her was fabulously unimportant to him.

Laying down on the ground, his lips curving every so slightly, David intertwined Snow's fingers in his.

And this was how Snow awoke, as Regina plunged the heart into her chest and David drew his last breath, with her hand wrapped lovingly in David's.

She placed a kiss on his knuckles, a tear rolling down her cheek. He was _her_ Prince Charming.

Emma materialized in her old apartment in Boston. Grey smoke swirled around her, and as it dissipated, it revealed her hands, her arms, her neck, her face. Her forehead was pressed to the ground once more. She dragged herself to a sitting position and leaned against a wall.

Sobs wracked Emma's body. She shook and convulsed with guilt and regret, oh, unfathomable regret. She kept her eyes tightly shut; she couldn't bear to look at a world where her mother was dead and _she_ had caused it. She dug her nails deep into her scalp and yanked her golden curls back.

She was magic-less, she knew that much. Even her white magic had drained away, and the only thing that pulsed through her veins was… blood. It was a relief. But it did not matter if her mother was not there to share that relief.

Emma rocked herself back and forth, trying to console some of her agony, her grief, her devastation, her loss, her _something._ It did not work.

The utter pain she felt was tearing her apart. Why was _she_ the one to live and Mary Margaret the one to die?

Reconciliation, her mind told her. The punishment must fit the crime, and her crime had been absolutely unthinkable. Incomprehensible. Appalling.

Emma stood up and walked slowly to the kitchen, old memories about where things were located resurfacing. She pulled a knife out of one of the drawers and pressed it delicately to her wrist. It was Boston. She had no magic. She didn't deserve to live. She could die.

As she began moving the knife across her wrist, the doorbell chimed. Emma furrowed her brows. How could anyone know she was here? It had been five years since she had left and moved to Storybrooke; there was no way.

Emma set the paring knife down on the counter and walked over to the door. She looked through the peephole, but didn't see anybody in her line of view. She opened the door anyway.

Two hopeful, green eyes stared up into hers, partially covered by messy locks of chocolate colored hair. A shy smile was aimed at Emma's face.

A little kid stood in front of her door, twisting his hands nervously.

"Are you Emma Swan? My name's Henry. I'm your son."


	36. Acknowledgements

**Acknowledgements**

Thank you to each and every person who read this story, or even just clicked on it, got disinterested, and clicked back out. It would have never gotten finished if I hadn't've gotten all of the encouragement that I got from all of you. I enjoyed writing this story more than I can express, and I hope you got some joy out of reading it as well. My deepest thanks goes out to all of you, and I want to thank as many of you personally as I can because I am just SO incredibly thankful. You all are awesome, and I just want to make sure you know it.

First off, thanks to everyone who favorited this story. It made me happy beyond belief to know that you liked reading my story and thought that it was worth noting. This includes:

 **Alaizabel Marks**

 **Commandos**

 **Evil Unipotata**

 **Hunter135**

 **I-am-awesome21**

 **Infinity.22**

 **Monachopsis**

 **Seventeenforeverxoxo**

 **Smithtwins2016**

 **Vader36**

 **alays 59**

 **authorlouise**

 **booklover457**

 **divergenttrilogyyy**

 **freefordogs**

 **juliet1023**

 **justices**

 **kenfromhus**

 **literacygirls**

 **melissa.326**

 **minerbuilder12**

 **polybi**

 **soccergirlx**

 **thekeeblerelf**

Next off, thanks to those of you who left a review! I was glad to hear you were enjoying the story, and the ones that were criticisms- I took some of those suggestions and ended up liking my story even more after! I especially liked adding David in as a more prominent character; the connection he and Emma share is so adorable. I would like to thank some of my reviewers personally:

 **DrakiraDormiens~** _"This story is amazing so far! Your writing is immaculate and I love your plot!"_ (c3) Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!

 **Andria (guest reviewer)~** You left so many reviews that I couldn't choose just one! Thank you for your support!

 **Guest~** _"Awesome start!"_ (c4) Great! It means a lot to me that you like it!

 **Xitsemma** _"Great story!"_ (c8) Thank you :D

 **Guest~** _ **"**_ _Where's David? As her father, he's as important a part of 'her family' as Snow and Henry. And more important than Regina."_ (c8) Right. I agree, and I added him in partially because of this comment. I actually enjoyed the story a whole lot more myself when David took on a slightly more serious role!

 **Dinah (guest reviewer)~** _"Love it so far!"_ (c8) Aww! Many thanks!

 **Guest~ "** _How did Mary Margaret leave town with only half a heart. She should have dropped dead at the town line. Plus we know from 4.02 she breastfeeds. No way would she be able to leave Neal. Just another mama Snow fan makibg David unimportant to his daughter:("_ (c9) Whoops! I didn't mean to make David unimportant in the beginning, the multitude of characters was just overwhelming for me. I had to pick and choose a select few. But David was added in there, and it made the story infinitely better! Thanks!

 **OnceuponCaptainSwan~** _"Very good story can't wait to read another emma chapter…"_ 9 (c11) Thank you for the sweet review!

 **Ni Castle-** _"Finally!"_ (c14) I know, right!

 **Hunter135~** _"Omg, i 100% want more of this, I cried"_ (c16) Glad you were enjoying it!

 **Kenfromhus~** _"nice"_ (c18) Haha, thanks

 **Guest~** _"I like this story! It's different, in a good way. Kudos"_ (c19) Thank you! I'm glad to hear my story doesn't merge and blend with the thousands of other Once fanfictions out there! Sticking out is good!

 **Guest~** _"When is Emma going to reunite with her fqther. I hate how he's been sidelined in this story."_ (c20) You weren't alone on this one! Thanks for saying something; the story was astronomically better WITH David!

 **Melissa.326~** _"CONTINUE! It's off to a wonderful start…don't quit! Can't wait to read more!"_ (c22) Thank you for sticking with me when I was unsure of whether to continue or not! I'm glad that I did go on with the story!

 **Alaizabel Marks~** _"I really like this story. You seem to capture the characters very well. I was wondering if you were gonna incorporate anything from the teaser trailer in this."_ (c23) Thanks! I actually forgot to respond to your comment… I don't think I incorporated anything from the TRAILERS, but there _is_ some Season 5 lurking in there somewhere.

 **Polybi~ "** _Masterpiece. Few writers have delved into the relationship between David and his daughter. And in all the SQ Vs CS controversy, we keep forgetting this held off an army while holding his little girl in his arms. This is what good dads for. Thanks for this. Keep this going. Please."_ (c22) Ahh… my favorite review of all! Thank you so much; I'm glad you think I did a good job with this story!

 **Jcat30~** _"I like this story, please continue!"_ Thanks!

 **Juliet1023~** _"…very interesting story"_ (c25) Glad you like it!

 **Guest~** _ **"**_ _I don't know why, but Emma just doesn't seem right with brown hair...I keep picturing Cameron instead of Emma..._

 _When will she go back to blonde...?_

 _I'm weird about these things, sorry..._

 _Great chapter!"_ (c31) I know, the brown hair was weird for me, too (who's Cameron?). Don't afraid to be weird! It's the best kind of different!

 **Jade~** _"You better post on Saturday! I can not handle not reading!"_ (c33) I upheld my promise; I'm sorry that chapter 35 had to be the last chapter!

 **Onceuponcaptainswan~ "** _Noooo :( I dont want it to be finish in one chapter. i love the dark swan so much but youve done an amazing job with this story :)"_ (c34) Thank you, and sorry for having to end the story! If you need something else to read, there are tons of fantastic new _Once_ fanfictions being posted every day. Or, I'm posting a new story today. You can start that

 **Xitsemma~** _"OMG"_ (c34) I.K.R! I said the same thing!

Also, thanks to all who followed this story because they wanted to keep reading it! I am so grateful! This includes:

 **125BACamp**

 **aball147**

 **Adels45**

 **Alaizabel Marks**

 **Alays 59**

 **Artsoccer**

 **Authorlouise**

 **Beverlie4055**

 **Bloodymary2**

 **Cebyk**

 **Divergenttrilogyyy**

 **DrakiraDormiens**

 **Evil Unipotata**

 **Firefly154**

 **HKcookie**

 **Hunter135**

 **I-am-awesome21**

 **Ihaveseentherain**

 **iiFangirlii**

 **Infinity.22**

 **Jcat30**

 **Jhenny23**

 **Juliet1023**

 **Justices**

 **KarenDani4Ever**

 **Kiluvi**

 **KooshGID**

 **LDH**

 **LisaaM**

 **Literacygirls**

 **Mamawolf2**

 **Maritexxam**

 **Melissa.326**

 **Minorshan**

 **MISSwickedforgood**

 **Monachopsis**

 **Mynameis1827**

 **Niafong**

 **OnceuponCaptainSwan**

 **Polybi**

 **Revengest**

 **SayImADreamer**

 **Seventeenforeverxoxo**

 **Smithtwins2016**

 **Tibetan mastiff**

 **Vader36**

 **Wetsoks**

 **xitsemma**

Finally, thanks to everyone who read or looked at this story in general. It kept my morale up to see that you were still intrigued and reading, whoever you are.

" _The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."_ – Lao Tzu

Thank you for taking that first step with me, and for staying with me until the end.

All my love,

 **Jen Hunt**


End file.
